What do you make of this microscope?

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Iain Richards — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 09:48:33 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]

I'm guessing potentially useful for a farm animal vet to be looking at a sample of something disgusting in the field? But I wonder if the portability (and ability to share images on iPads) could be useful in small animal practice or not?

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Oi! Guthrie! There's never anything disgusting to look at down a microscope!

More seriously, I have reservations - robustness, ease of cleaning. I'd be happy to trial one.....

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 13:16:36 GMT

Update: https://www.vetsurgeon.org/news/b/veterinary_news/archive/2016/11/04/140147.aspx

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Andrew Monk — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 08:51:12 GMT

[quote user="J G Wray"]

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

If you could get the software to take a picture and do the worm egg count for me - then you can have £700 of my money..............

[/quote]

How about software that measures the eggs in a McMaster slide and highlights the more pathogenic, this software compatible with the microscope?

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Thanks Jonathan. This is exactly what I was looking at in Yorkshire when you called last week. There is a lot of process and software development needed, but we believe that what you are suggesting is technically feasible.

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Andrew Monk — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 08:44:17 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

[quote user="Andrew Monk"]You comment that it is not cheap, that's helpful input. but I would be interested to hear what you are comparing it with. From what we see cheaper microscopes either have much lower resolution, or do not record images or are not portable. Often all three![/quote]

I paid £500 for a 2nd hand Zeiss Axioskop with phase contrast. I take it onto farms to do bull semen evaluation.

I tried doing a worm egg count using a McMaster slide once without a mechanical stage and it is too easy to jiggle the slide and move the eggs about. Even with my fat fingers I have no problem with the mechanical stage.

If you could get the software to take a picture and do the worm egg count for me - then you can have £700 of my money..............

[/quote]

Thanks that's helpful. £500 for a Zeiss Axioskop with phase contrast a camera is a good deal and, properly set up, should produce better images than our microscope. However, our microscope is pocket sized and doesn't need mains power. It is also easier to set up than a conventional microscope, for less experienced microscopists. So our current work focuses on applications where portability is as important as great images.

Cell counting and diagnosis is feasible and there are already software modules that could be incorporated in our app with some development. However, we want to be sure that our microscope is useful to vets before making this investment, so your comments are very useful.

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

J G Wray — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 06:53:53 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

If you could get the software to take a picture and do the worm egg count for me - then you can have £700 of my money..............

[/quote]

How about software that measures the eggs in a McMaster slide and highlights the more pathogenic, this software compatible with the microscope?

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 23:26:54 GMT

I paid £500 for a 2nd hand Zeiss Axioskop with phase contrast. I take it onto farms to do bull semen evaluation.

If you could get the software to take a picture and do the worm egg count for me - then you can have £700 of my money..............

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Andrew Monk — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:01:43 GMT

Thanks for your support Jonathan. I look forward to delivering your microscope and hearing what you make of it.

Good discussion about the mechanical stage. We could add a mechanical stage, indeed the early prototypes had this feature. However we found it made them harder to use because it reduced the stiffness and made it harder to focus. In practice it is pretty easy to move the slide smoothly around the stage and we have tried it on a McMasters slide and it works fine. Arlo is right, we could automate the counting in software too, but we would like to check how useful the microscope is to vets before we make that investment.

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Andrew Monk — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 16:57:06 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

I think it looks rather useless - an invention to solve a problem that doesn't exist. It's not hard taking a microscope to farm. It's very easy having a USB viewfinder that will allow you to take high quality images for archive. It's not cheap so can't throw on in each car, so unlikely to be just there when you want it. No mechanical stage and that makes it no good for decent searching of specimens, egg counts etc.

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Thanks for the input. We are currently assessing how useful it is to the veterinary profession. A couple of vets have been very supportive and have purchased units which we will deliver over the next few weeks and we are very much looking forward to hearing how they get on. We are talking to another vet about a system to do parasite egg counts on the farm in real time and at a low cost. He thinks this would be useful in preventing drug resistance due to over prescription.

You comment that it is not cheap, that's helpful input. but I would be interested to hear what you are comparing it with. From what we see cheaper microscopes either have much lower resolution, or do not record images or are not portable. Often all three!

I would love to prove you wrong, but we are currently still collecting the data.

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 19 May 2016 07:50:48 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]I think it looks rather useless - an invention to solve a problem that doesn't exist.[/quote] Knew I could count on you, Duncan Bannatyne!

To be fair, they didn't invent it for the veterinary market, they've just had a lot of interest from vets.

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]No mechanical stage and that makes it no good for decent searching of specimens, egg counts etc.[/quote] That's interesting, so I presume a mechanical stage allows you to move a slide in graduated steps so you can count eggs, for example, in small sectors of a known size in each sample. I wonder if that is not something that can be done with software. I suppose more will become clear in due course. Also wonder how often vets use a graduated stage. i.e. is a microscope without one severely restricted in terms of application?

[quote user="J G Wray"]They also come from just down the road and I'm seeing them next week[/quote]

Ha - I think that's now the second time I've rung someone in recent months to find you snuck in there before me! Will be very interesting to hear what you make of it.

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

J G Wray — Wed, 18 May 2016 22:41:21 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

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Aye lad thuz nowt like tradition. 'Appen, like most't vit'nureez Ahm not a man ta stand bare-chested in't byre, appily cover't in t' green stuff.

We'll give it a go, supporting a local startup small business in the process and let you know. How does that sound?

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 18 May 2016 22:23:31 GMT

RE: What do you make of this microscope?

J G Wray — Wed, 18 May 2016 19:58:54 GMT

Bought one will let you know. I see it having a use in everyday cytology as a chargeable item, in house and easily recorded and attached to clinical notes. Currently it's all a bit of a faff keeping a permanent record of whatever cyto is being done.

They also come from just down the road and I'm seeing them next week