The Multi Camera Array Microscope (MCAM), a revolutionary Gigapixel 3D microscope, captures life in unprecedented detail. Duke University researchers fused 24 smartphone cameras into a single platform and stitched their images together to create a camera capable of taking gigapixel images. Six years later, they’ve discovered that perfecting the process of connecting dozens of individual cameras allows them to see the height of objects as well.

The researchers demonstrated the capabilities of the MCAM, a high-speed, 3D, gigapixel microscope, in a paper published online March 20 in Nature Photonics. The device provides new opportunities for researchers all over the world. The MCAM employs 54 lenses with greater speed and resolution than the prototype that discovered Waldo. The MCAM’s highly parallelized design creates its own data processing challenges, as a few minutes of recording can generate over a terabyte of data.

The researchers, on the other hand, have created new algorithms that can efficiently handle these extremely large video datasets. The sheer volume of data generated by this microscope can be used to flag any results of interest, allowing the modern laboratory to become more automated by the day.

Source: National Library of Medicine (link)
Images: MidJourney, Prompts by Lewis Farrell

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