Behold A Microscope That Sees By Squashing Things Into It
“Look with your eyes, not your hands” is one thing quite a few of us have listened to when increasing up, but that does not utilize to the contact-delicate microscope [Steve Mould] obtained to perform with.
The wand-like product is manufactured by Gelsight, and as an alternative of an optical lens like a regular microscope, it sports activities a gel pad on the sensing stop. By squashing an item into the gel, the system is able to cautiously illuminate and picture the impression designed. By using numerous pictures lit from diverse angles, a large amount of info can be extracted.
The outcome is a large-resolution magnification — albeit a monochromatic just one — that conveys depth very properly. It is fairly neat obviously seeing little specks of dust or lint existing on surfaces when [Steve] demonstrates imaging things like coin cells.
Lots of a hacker is aware of that the devil is in the facts when it comes to executing an notion. Even so, the standard rules of the Gelsight seem to be uncomplicated enough and perhaps inside of the realm of influenced Do it yourself in the very same way that we observed a CNC gantry and USB microscope repurposed as an optical comparator.
Observe the Gelsight in motion in the video underneath, embedded beneath the website page crack.
