Artist Carl Merriam has built a fully functional microscope using only Lego parts.
Merriam,
who is known for his intricate Lego renderings of mythical creature
Cthulhu and other custom creations, submitted the microscope concept to
Lego Ideas, an effort by the Lego Group to crowdsource, build out and
distribute new designs.
Submissions
must have the support of 10,000 users who can log onto the Lego site
and vote for their favorite entries before the concept is presented to
the board for consideration. Those whose ideas are chosen by Lego
receive 1% of the product's royalties.
So
far, only 700 have supported Merriam's design — but he still has nine
months to go before the deadline ends. He says he recently developed the
idea while toying with Lego's designer X-Pod sets, trying to determine a
practical use for them.
"While
trying to find a use for the pod itself, I realized that [the lens] was
very close to a deep petri dish," he wrote on his blog. "I used a
planetary gear system to allow both coarse and fine adjustment of the
objective 'lens.' A little more tinkering and I connected the focus to a
magnifying glass and fiber optic light in the eyepiece, so adjusting
the focus knobs would actually bring the writing on a Lego stud in and
out of focus."
The
microscope has limited power for now, but Merriam says it is possible
to eventually build a higher-functioning version. The current version
comes with adjustable knobs, magnification and lights — all produced by
Lego. The design also uses a lens for a magnification effect in the eye
piece.
Posted by : Gizmeon
No comments:
Post a Comment