Turn your android phone into a magnifying glass, or even a microscope

Turn your android phone into a magnifying glass, or even a microscope

The versatility of android phones, combined with the openness of android platform itself, has contributed to its tremendous development. As more and more people are choosing android app development as a side business, we see a multitude of different applications for Android devices, and so of them are truly beyond our wildest thoughts.

Simply the very best

One such app is 'Your Magnifying Glass' for Android. It's perhaps one of the best 'field tools' to be required by students of Biology and biology enthusiasts alike, because it turns your main camera into a sort of powerful digital magnifying glass, or even better, a digital microscope. The app is free to download from Google Play Store, and supports nearly all devices equipped with a main camera. What's especially noteworthy regarding the app is that, no matter your camera is, it will support zooming. That is, software zoom has been added in addition to actual zoom on devices. Low-end android phones will benefit from the recent update.  The main advantage of such apps is that they take up little space but greatly enhance the productivity of your android, turning it into a sort of portable workspace for you. Indeed, with many of apps of such wonderful capability and innovation coming up, we'd be seeing all-in-one devices sooner than we had thought previously.

Affording a powerful microscope for sake of study alone is difficult for most biology-enthusiasts of our country, and getting one (even if you have the money) is not easy as well. You'll have to keep it clean, and taking it to distant places is really a pain. But why bother, when you have the power of android wth you?

The darling device for biology-lovers like me. 

A microscope 'captures' light, and so does a magnifying glass, then alters it to suit your needs and renders them visible to you. Similarly, the android camera lens 'captures' lights as well, but does something even better. Instead of taking the light to your eyes, it simply takes it to the digital image-sensor, renders and processes it digitally and then displays the final result before your eyes. Thus, the working schematic can be pretty similar if not slightly better in the case of digital cameras. One day, I believe such digital microscopes might even cause the old ones to be abandoned.

The Google Play link on the web is HERE. The ad-free versions costs a bit, but the free version does it job well. So the developer recommends checking out the free version first.

The app is surprisingly small in size, about 500 KB. The interface is simple, focusing mainly on the display, and has a small array of buttons at the bottom of the screen. The main options are:

A magnified shot

1. Re-focus: This focuses the camera lens once again, to get sharper and more detailed image of the body.

2. Light: This enables/disables the phone's LED flash if it has one. Especially useful in the dark, this light can also benefit zooming under well-lit situations, because the flash LED then takes the role of a fill-flash, providing more light to the subject.

3. Negative on/off: This turns the display into a negative of the subject. Useful for inanimate objects, to detect impurities in them.

4. Rotate display: This is a cool addition, and allows you to actually rotate your image right on the go. Beautifully fast and elegant, it helps people who prefer  different orientation for viewing.

5. Take a shot: This is one of the nicest features of the 'microscope'. You can actually take a high-powered shot of just anything. Not that the quality will be awesome, but it records the original structure viewed under the microscope pretty nicely, so that you can post it on your blog or study it later.

The main interface of the app

6. Zoom slider: This cool slider allows you to adjust the degree of zooming. But when you set it to maximum or near max value, it takes a little bit more time to get the true focus. And you should keep your hands steady. You can also use your device's volume up/down buttons to zoom in/out. Especially cool.

By default, high-brightness setting is enabled on your main display. That gives you a razor-sharp rendering of what's below. And especially cool is the ability to take snapshots.

This tiny app has the potential to turn your android mobile or goblet into a nearly full-fledged magnifying/microscope-like tool, and should be used thus. While inanimate objects such as chairs, tables etc are rendered well, this app should be mainly used to examine plants, leaves, grass, flowers etc (without necessarily plucking them!) in a well-lit environment. That can give you some wonderful results and insights into the world of biology, and how organisms look actually inside. :)

However, the capacity of this tool is limited to the actual quality of your device's camera. So, you can't expect it to perform extraordinarily well if you have a 1.3 MP camera. Mine is 8 MP (main), and it does its job, very, very well. If you're benefited by using it, please consider giving the developer a good rating, and certainly a big hand.