Eyeclops video magnification system

[PhotonWrangler]

Eyeclops is marketed as a toy video microscope, but it looks like it can have some interesting applications beyond being a toy. I've been looking for this thing and I stumbled across it tonight at WalMart, so I snagged one at a sale price.

It has a video camera with a macro lens, selectable for 100x, 200x or 400x magnification, three white LEDs for illumination, a 32mb flash drive for saving pictures and movies, and a video output to display on a tv set. It has a built-in LCD screen so the user can wander around untethered, grab images and save them to the flash drive.

I've been playing with it for a bit and I'm amazed at the details I can see in small objects. Even a simple ballpoint line on a piece of paper looks like individual globs of ink on the screen. This thing is going to be useful for me for pcb inspection among other things. I can recommend it as a good cheapie microscope for general household and hobby use.

 

[reptiles]

Would this be useful to assist a (poor vision) person in reading by displaying text on a tv?

Or is 100x too much for that?

Regards,

Mark

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I think 100x is too much. It's tricky to get it aimed at the correct spot because the magnification is so high, so it would be rather cumbersome for reading. I think a simple $40 surveillance camera with a macro lens would work better for reading.

**Edit** Just tried it on the front page of a newspaper, looking at about 7-point type, and a single letter fills the whole screen at 100x. I can clearly see the fibers in the paper material itself, but it's practically impossible to follow a sentence with it.

 

[Burgess]

Gee . . . .


Too bad it doesn't have ~ 25 power, or so.


That woulda' made it more useful & versitile.



But, hey, thank you for the info, PhotonWrangler.


If not for you, i'd never have heard about it !

:twothumbs
_

 

[PhotonWrangler]

BTW, here's a good idea of what it can do. There are two versions, the regular "eyeclops" from last year (shown in this video) and the newer "Bionicam" unit with the built-in LCD screen and thumbdrive port. I have the newer unit.

 

[reptiles]

I think 100x is too much. It's tricky to get it aimed at the correct spot because the magnification is so high, so it would be rather cumbersome for reading. I think a simple $40 surveillance camera with a macro lens would work better for reading.

**Edit** Just tried it on the front page of a newspaper, looking at about 7-point type, and a single letter fills the whole screen at 100x. I can clearly see the fibers in the paper material itself, but it's practically impossible to follow a sentence with it.

Wow, it sure sounds interesting in general, though. Thanks for the details.

Regards,

Mark