Swift Optical Microscopes

It is no secret that microscopy can be a pretty dull thing in class. Especially when students all have to take turns looking into the same microscope. While there certainly are exceptions, looking through a microscope at some squiggly lines is a fairly dull task. In a class of, say, 7th grade children, this dullness is intensified. However, while at ISTE last week, we saw several products that have the potential to transform microscopy into a much more enjoyable endeavor.

Swift Optical manufactures a huge line of microscopes and microscope accessories. Though Swift does offer your standard compound microscopes, that is not what we are interested in here. Rather, Swift makes a line of both digital microscopes and microscope cameras. Sure that sounds normal enough, but the software that powers these digital microscopes is pretty amazing. This technology allows teachers and students to view images and video remotely. To put it another way, using wither a digital microscope or a microscope camera, teachers can essentially stream video from the microscope onto, say, a projector. This is a great way to make use of a schools limited budget. Rather than buying 25 or so microscopes, a school could just buy one of these digital microscopes.

We had a chance to stop by the Swift Optical booth during ISTE. The Swift team showed us how the microscope camera works, as well has how their streaming app works.