50-Cent Microscope That Folds Like Origami [video](engineering.stanford.edu)
engineering.stanford.edu
50-Cent Microscope That Folds Like Origami [video]
https://engineering.stanford.edu/research-profile/manu-prakashs-50-cent-microscope-folds-origami
9 comments
Very cool! Any more detailed information about its construction? I bet they would also be interesting to a different audience - as toy.
Edit: Found this http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1403/1403.1211.pdf
Edit: Found this http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1403/1403.1211.pdf
Unfortunately they try to patent it. Let's see how much the patent license will add to the 50 cent and how monopolistic they will act. Le Sigh.
http://www.google.com/patents/WO2013120091A1
http://www.google.com/patents/WO2013120091A1
Ca 0.50$ is actually only the Material cost. This number does not include cost for manufacturing, development, distribution, quality control, etc.
Previous discussion here : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7377213
I wonder how soon this will be developed in large quantities. Funding from places like Bill Gates' foundation is almost certain, but there seems to be a lag, as the TED talk is from June 2012, while the arXiv paper [1] as well as the linked post from March 2014. Maybe hitting the 50¢ mark would require lots of units?
[1] http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.1211
[1] http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.1211
Is diagnosis really a problem for health care in the developing world? I would imagine that in places like sub-Saharan Africa, they have a pretty good idea of what the symptoms of malaria look like, and they don't need microscopes so much as they need medicine.
Manu Prakash discussing this on TED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8cF5QPPmWU
He describes the lens as being 'manufactured directly from paper'. I'd like to understand what this means. I'm guessing that the Origami technique is what gives the lens its 3D structure, but at least you'll need some highly transparent material to form it, right? Do they have plastic or even glass glued into there?
Its a micro glass lens as described here:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1403/1403.1211.pdf
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1403/1403.1211.pdf
Wow, great article!
This looks really great! I would love to get my hands on one.
They're sending out 10,000 free microscopes in a beta-test shortly: http://www.foldscope.com/10ksignup
What won out in the end? Ultra-Low-Cost smartphones, basically offering the same functionality as the western counterparts but with cost drastically reduced by being based on completely domestic chinese designs and Android.
In this case, the problem is rather the education required to use the microscope and interpret the results. A professional will probably manage to finance a $50-$100 microscope, either second hand or as a knock-off, regardless of being in a third world country.
The paper microscope is a great toy or educational device though.