Rice team designs lens-free fluorescent microscope [Video]

The Rice team began developing the device as part of a federal initiative by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as an implantable, high-resolution neural interface. But the device’s potential is much greater. The researchers claim FlatScope, an advance on the labs’ earlier FlatCam, could be used as an implantable endoscope, a large-area imager or a flexible microscope. Researchers say they can imaging this rolling off a fabrication line, but their primary targets are medical uses, from implantable scopes for the clinic to palm-sized microscopes for the battlefield. [Video produced by Brandon Martin/Rice University]