Trackoscope

A microscope that tracks for you

 

Trackoscope, a 2-axis autonomous tracking microscope designed to follow swimming organisms ranging from 10µm to 2mm across a 325cm2 area (equivalent to an A5 sheet) for extended durations—ranging from hours to days—at high resolution.

Beyond the boundaries of fixed lens: capturing the full range of microorganism motility

Anyone who’s peered into the vast microbial world knows the challenges of capturing it— their movement rarely confines itself to a tiny circle. Not only does this pose difficulties for the scientist or student peering into the microscope, but when we want to share our findings, showing our colleagues the shaky attempts of tracking a swimming ciliate by manually moving the view around puts the challenges of following microorganisms on full display. Existing tracking solutions can cost between $1000-$5000.

We have a solution. A $400, easy to assemble, modular, autonomous tracking microscope: Trackoscope. With Trackoscope, any scientist, from high school labs to labs in resource-constrained environments, will be able to gain new insights into the microbial world.

 
 

Major questions

  1. Can we make a consistent, reliable method of tracking a variety of moving microorganisms?

  2. Can we make trackoscope affordable?

  3. How does trackoscope compare to other commercial options?

 

What we’ve discovered

Autonomous Tracking for $400

Each part of Trackoscope was made to optimize cost, quality, and to provide an easy-to-use alternative to other tracking solutions.

Diverse Capabilities for a Diverse Microbial World

Trackoscope consistently followed slow and fast moving organisms (0.1 µm/s to 2 mm/s). Utilizing Trackoscope, we captured a diverse array of behaviors, from the air-water swimming locomotion of Amoeba to bacterial hunting dynamics in Actinosphaerium, walking gait in Tardigrada, and binary fission in motile Blepharisma.

High Resolution and Speed

Trackoscope resolution can capture detailed organism features such as cilia clusters or internal structures.

Anyone Can Build Their Own Trackoscope

Trackoscope is a DIY scope that comes with instructions. Find the instructions and the assembly video in our Supplemental Materials below.

 

Read the paper

 

Trackoscope: A Low-Cost, Open, Autonomous Tracking Microscope for Long-Term Observations of Microscale Organisms. (2024)

Get the program files and build tutorial on Github

 

SupplementaL Material

 

Trackoscope Supplementary Info

 
Saad Bhamla