Microscopy

This project employs the OpenFlexure Microscope (OFM). OFM is an open-source microscope, meaning that the 3D schematics for the structural parts and assembly instructions, using off the shelf electronics, are openly available. The OFM is developed by the Bath Open INstrumentation Group (BOING) for the purpose of “making microscopes and micromanipulators, with precise mechanical positioning, available to anyone with a 3D printer”.

The OFM can be printed and mounted in ~24h (using one printer) at a material cost of less than 3,000SEK (plastics, electronics and optics included). Since it is completely open source it is highly customisable making it possible to employ the microscope for many different applications. The OFM makes it possible for us to simplify the photography of aquatic samples. Here is a simplified user manual describing how to operate the microscope.

The surface area (4cm2) of the bottom of the sediment chamber (one sample) can be scanned in ~3h 30min using a snake pattern. This results in ~1000 images. With multiple microscopes working in parallel it is then possibel to reach a high sample processing rate. With the potential to document more images than what one person can analyse, it is important to evaluate the usefulness of AI-assisted identification and quantification.

This webpage, with all its contents, is to be considered under contruction and not a final product.
Links and descriptions to related solutions and protocols will continously be updated and made available.