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The Snap! 3D-Printed Microscope is designed to enable students to explore automated microscopy. It can be fabricated for $50 but uses the same optical lenses as commercial microscopes. Therefore, the quality of images captured using the Snap! Microscope are comparable to those acquired with commercial school microscopes.

A school with a maker space can conserve scarce resources by fabricating microscopes for its science classes. The microscope is currently being piloted at sites in Uganda and Kenya where access to commercial microscopes is limited.

Autofocus. An autofocus program developed in Snap! by a high school student working in collaboration with the developers uses edge detection to determine when the image is in focus. This information is communicated to a program on the microcontroller connected to the focus control. The microcontroller program, implemented in MicroBlocks, uses the microcontroller to turn the focus control in the appropriate direction. Based on the results, the Snap! program makes appropriate adjustments until the slide is in focus.

Automated Identification. A team of computer science students at the University of Virginia are developing extensions that employ artificial intelligence to facilitate identification of specimens. This feature will be used to support comparison specimens collected across different biomes at schools in different geographic regions.

The CAD files for fabrication of the microscope are available in the Educational CAD Model Library, an open-source peer-reviewed repository for schools. The Snap! software application will enable students and teachers to examine and modify the software to create their own extensions and enhancements.