WaterScope Microscopes
3D printed digital microscope
Waterscope is an organization that created a digital microscope designed for the detection microorganisms and other pollutants in water. For the purpose of empowering the bottom billion to secure clean water. There are billions of people that lack clean safe drinking water and death occurring because of waterborne diseases. Due the fact that water testing equipment are expensive and hard to use this results to lack information and no treatment for the water. Therefore Waterscope aim to create an easy and cheap way to test water.
Waterscope microscopes are a 3D printed Open Flexure microscopes. Using an innovative and inexpensive 3D printed microscope which is either by using a USB cable or raspberry Pi. Thanks to its flexure- based design, its motion is free from friction and vibration and achieves sub-micron precision and range of 8mm. due to the fact that this is a digital microscope whereby the image can be view on a computer monitor or phone when connected by a USB cable or the images from the camera can be processed by a raspberry Pi and transmitted wireless to a smartphone, tablet or PC. This technology is helpful in ways that testing is very easy with less experience needed to operate the microscope. Pictures can be viewed, saved and sent to anyone anywhere for further preview or analysis. Using 3D printer to create this microscope has made it significantly smaller, lighter and cheaper than today’s microscopes and testing kits.
The Waterscope microscope was specifically made to test water but found that it can be implemented in more fields of testing. Malaria is one of the biggest problems, constantly being testing so there is the need to acquire fast, cheap and easy means of testing it. Due to the fact that in most villages and urban areas there is the lack of microscopes and experts for accurate diagnosis brings the need of having means of dealing with this.