Nokia Lumia 1020 scores another science win

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a pretty advanced camera, sporting some fantastic technology while costing only $99 on contract.

We have seen this technical wonder repurposed by scientists to take photos around corners or even through flesh and now we have a scientific paper describing how the camera can be used to capture photomicrographs much better, and more quickly and conveniently, than other solutions.

Photomicrographs are used to examine and record biopsy samples via a microscope to look for illnesses like cancer or inflammatory disease.  Currently many scientists and technicians use simple point and shoot cameras through the eyepiece of the microscope, but unless they use special and bulky mounts they tend to suffer from motion blur and poor resolution.  Using a smartphone for the same purpose only compounds those issues.

That is unless you use a Nokia Lumia 1020 of course.

Researchers John P Graff and Mark Li-cheng Wu from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine have published a letter in the renowned journal “Histopathology” titled The Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone as a 41-megapixel photomicroscope in which they explain how using a Nokia Lumia 1020 eliminates most of the difficulties of using a smartphone camera to take photomicrographs via the microscope eye piece.

The optical image stabilization eliminates motion blur, while the very high resolution of the 1020 allows lossless zoom to reveal detail not seen in the original photomicrograph. An example of such a picture can be seen above.

In addition Windows Phone’s integration with OneDrive, OneNote and Microsoft Office allows easy and secure sharing of work and a convenient workflow.

Those interested can find the article at Wiley.com here.

More about the topics: nokia lumia 1020, science, windows phone