DIPLE - the REVOLUTIONARY microscope for any smartphone
Created by SMO SmartMicroOptics
Explore the microscopic world around you with the most powerful, compact and easy-to use microscope for any smartphone or tablet!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
BLIPS3 - The last generation of Blips lenses is now LIVE on Kickstarter!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Oct 05, 2022 at 10:01:17 PM
Dear Backer,
It’s been a while!
In these last years we have worked to improve the portable microscope DIPLE; now it is used by a lot of Science fans and in many schools and universities around the globe; for teaching and also for research. Here two links to recent publications: DIPLE for education and DIPLE for research. Moreover, DIPLE is also used in humanitarian projects.
But this update is mainly to inform you that our team has created A NEW PRODUCT: BLIPS3. It is the last generation of our Blips lenses, for macro-photography with smartphone.
We have changed everything of the original design of the Blips lenses, except the concept.
Blips3 is extra-portable, ready to be used in any moment. When not in use on the camera, you can keep these lenses on your phone body, over or even under your protective case, in your wallet or in their original box.
Blips3 key features include:
two different lenses, with different magnifying powers: Blips3 MX lens, with a magnifying power comparable to ordinary USB digital microscopes, is suitable for super-macro, hand-held uses. Blips3 MV lens, with a larger field of view and a great ease of use, is the macro lens for the most common macro-observations;
a new, improved adhesive technology: our lenses can be used more than 500 times without changing the sticky tape; the new sticky pads can be washed to recover its adhesive properties;
four stainless-steel plates provide solidity and flatness, useful to ensure great adhesion on the flat surfaces of phones and tablets. They also allow users to put on and remove the lenses in seconds;
Blips3 lenses are self-healing: you can squeeze them, but after a while they return to their original shape;
new very useful little accessories come together with the lenses, to get the best results from them: specifically designed spacers for observing surfaces, and an easy-to-use and ultra-compact light source, particularly helpful together with the spacers, in environment with low lighting.
Blips3 suits well on your phone, with or without protective cover: the structure of Blips3 has been designed to fit any phone model. You should assemble the lens on your device the first time, setting its best length with a straightforward process.
For those of you who want to know more about the project, I am happy to share this info:
DIPLE has been used as microscope system by one of our backers for a winner project (third place) in the international Microsoft Azure AI Hackathon, with almost 2000 participants. Our best compliments to him!
DIPLE is now used with satisfaction in Schools/Colleges/Universities. The preferred/most requested item for educational purposes is the version with red and grey lenses, plus standard stage. We are now ready to accept bulk orders for classes and workshops (for any version of DIPLE).
Thanks to the baker Brittni Devlin forTHIS REVIEW of DIPLE that we found on the web! About the chance to buy single parts or accessories, soon we are going to release our eshop to make it easily accessible, with all the components of DIPLE available. Meanwhile, do not hesitate to contact us for any request!
We have been surprised (and happy) to see DIPLE in the issue of April of Vogue UK!
DIPLE on Vogue
IMPORTANT:
Very soon a new product for effective sanitation with UVC light will be released on Indiegogo; this device has been developed by a company that supported us in the development of DIPLE and its effectiveness has been tested and validated in hospital environment.
Production and Shipments
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 04:28:23 PM
Dear backers,
Thanks again for your patience and support.
Production and shipping are going ahead smoothly. This week we concluded to ship to almost all the backers outside the US. Within about 1 month we should be able to fulfill all the orders, independently on the Country.
Few backers have still to complete the survey, with their shipping information. If you are among them, contact us and we’ll re-send the link to the Backerkit survey.
About the backers in the US who have not yet received their reward, we will send them by Fedex express courier. So, we’ll reduce the shipping time as much as possible.
For those of you interested in the DIPLE project developments, we keep receiving positive feedback, in particular about the use of DIPLE as a teaching tool of Science subjects; students are generally enthusiastic to use their devices for exploring the invisible, microscopic world, with individual and practical experiences. The chance to use standard glasses/samples for microscopy has been very appreciated, too. Here below a group of pics taken from the students of a class of Botany at the Cornell University (NY), sent to us from the course professor; DIPLE units (Red & Standard version) were sent in September.
pics from the students of the course of plant biology
Moreover, the lens of the DIPLE Grey tile has been positively tested from a medical company involved in the detection of Covid (non for imaging the virus, that is too small, but for checking effects on blood cells). The preliminary tests were successful, and we hope to make the technology developed in the DIPLE project available for this huge challenge, too.
Update 12
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 02:45:16 AM
Dear backers,
Thanks for your patience and support.
We have already shipped out more than 1000 DIPLE pledges and we keep working to fulfill all your requests. As mentioned in previous updates, the list depends on some main factors: purchased items, destination Country and pledge number.
This Winter is giving us extra challenges: most of the shipments are in delay, some of them with unexpected long delays, due to the mix of massive on-line orders (as a huge number of people placed orders for Christmas presents from home), longer procedures due to Covid and, in some cases, limited number of personnel at the shipping companies or customs. In particular, we are waiting parts/accessories for our second batch of production (we split the supplying of goods in 2 groups, each group with parts for making about 1200 units) that was sent out from our supplier in China during the first half of November. The normal lead time would be 3 weeks, but the shipment arrived in Europe only on Dec 24th, and it is still stuck at the customs. We are experiencing an extraordinary condition in the shipments; it is affecting all the World (https://www.dw.com/en/christmas-canceled-covid-blamed-for-delivery-delays/a-55944074) and it is out of our control.
We are confident that it is matter of few days to get those parts (the shortage of available boxes is now our main bottleneck). Meanwhile we are preparing everything available in order to be ready to pack and send all the remaining orders with a high fulfilling rate.
Delays in the shipping time were also reported from some of you: the way of some DIPLE units took very long time through tracked postal service (sometime twice the normal shipping time). But we think that this problem should get better in the next weeks, as the peak season of global parcel shipping is now behind us.
We are getting some remarkably interesting feedback from you, thank you 😊!
And we got enthusiastic feedback from students of the University of Wisconsin that used DIPLE for the course of advanced microscopy. Here you can download and see some of their shots, examples of their creativity, taken with DIPLE units. (and thanks to the Professor, for accepting to share these files!)
UPDATE 11
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 02:31:21 AM
Dear backers,
First of all we want to thanks who received DIPLE and spent time for sharing their positive feedback with us. It is not obvious (while it is normal to get comments when something is wrong), and it is extremely appreciated 😊.
It’s been a little while since our last update because we have experienced long delays to receive the shipments from our suppliers (in some cases even more than 3 weeks of delay on the estimated date) and we’d like to share updates with some relevant information. These delays are side effects of the pandemic, according to the shipping companies. However, even if we are still waiting some material, we got this week a good number of parts to process. We received few days ago the last, missing components to assembly the first DIPLE Lux!
DIPLE Lux was the last item not yet ready. We are preparing the first DIPLE lux units (plus many other DIPLE Black & Fine kits) to ship in the next days.
DIPLE Lux (as well as the main version of DIPLE) has been developed during this year, and now it is significantly better than the prototype showed in the Kickstarter campaign. Here below you can see the current DIPLE Lux in use; comparing it with the previously presented prototype, you can see the improved design and, most important, the chance to adjust the light intensity.
We ship a batch of DIPLE (at least 150-200 units) approximately every 10 days. If we’ll not have new problems (like lock-down, quarantines or issues with parts not yet received), we plan to complete the shipment of all the pledges within the end of January; so, we are almost there😊. The order list of shipping depends on the destination Country, items ordered and pledge number. For example, we plan to ship in December all the goods addressed to the UK, for avoiding the possible issues (already anticipated from our shipping partners) related to the Brexit.
