Experiments using a loupe with the camera of a mobile phone

I have had a chance to try the use of a simple loupe as a macro attachment, using blue-tac.  In particular, I used Loctitie Fun-Tak mounting putty.  The results were compelling. 

The blue mass is a blob of blue-tac.  The loupe is a relatively inexpensive one, attached by small bits of blue tac.  It was possible to work safely outside with the phoned, as the material held the lens firmly in place.  The lens was centered over the camera lens of an iPhone 6S+.  I used several different loupes.  One of them had an integrated led illuminator. 

Sound measurement using Mobile Phones.

An interesting result here.  For what it's worth.   The Peterson Strobe tuner is available for Android and Apple Phones.  Some comments online suggest that the Android version  of this app performs poorly, and my own experience with the expensive app ($10.00) is consistent with that assessment: I have experienced crashes repeatedly, and lagging.  It was somewhat dysfunctional for me, on a Samsung Galaxy S4.  I also have an iPhone version, which has seldom been used. 

For unknown reasons, iPhones have been adopted for a variety of scientific measurement applications.  The following general conclusions are drawn from an analysis of sound measurement apps on mobile devices.  Sadly (imho) Android devices did not seem to fare so well.

From Kardous, Chucri A., and Peter B. Shaw. "Evaluation of smartphone sound measurement applicationsa)." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 135.4 (2014): EL186-EL192.

The effect of the four different iOS devices used in this study on sound level measurements as demonstrated in Table III and Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) show that the older iPhone 3Gs model produced the best agreement for all the apps and noise levels tested (420 samples), with mean differences of 0.44 dB and −0.71 dBA between the apps and the reference microphone measurements. The variability in the results could be due to the different microphone elements in each device as Apple moved to a new supplier of microphones with the introduction of the iPhone 5 and iPAD 4th Generation devices. The differences could also be related to the introduction of a new operating system (iOS 6) that allowed developers to bypass speech filters and input gain control on older devices.

Almost all smartphone manufacturers use microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones in their devices. MEMS microphones typically have a sensitivity between 5 and 17.8 mV/Pa and can capture signals as low as 30 dB SPL and as high as 120 to 130 dB SPL (signal-to-noise ratio >60 dB). MEMS microphones also have a flat frequency response similar to ceramic and condenser microphones used in type 2 noise dosimeters. With the introduction of the iOS 6 operating system in late 2012, Apple allowed developers to bypass the high-pass filter that degraded the quality of acoustical measurements on older iPhones. This development also allows users of Apple smartphones to connect external microphones through the headset input jack. External microphones such as the MicW i436 (Beijing, China) Omni-directional measurement microphone comply with IEC 61672 class 2 sound level meter standard. An extension of this study is planned to examine the effect of external microphones on the overall accuracy of sound measurements apps.

The Android-based apps did not have features and functionality similar to the iOS apps. This is likely due to the development ecosystem of the Android marketplace and users' expectations for free or low priced apps. A comprehensive testing procedure could not be carried out to show conclusive evidence of differences, since not all apps shared features and metrics that met our selection criteria. The limited testing showed a wide variance between the same app measurements on different devices. This can likely be attributed to the fact that Android devices are built by several different manufacturers and that there is a lack of conformity for using similar microphones and other audio components in their devices.

A useful macro attachment for a phone

Simplicity.

Blue Tac + hand lens = Macro attachment.

This opens up some possibilities. Is this self explanatory?  Center the lens over the cell phone camera.  Shoot. 

Above is a photo of the Lightning connector of an iPhone. Did you know that the reason this is so expensive is that Apple has incorporated a chip to change pinouts based on which way this either-way connector is plugged in? Below is a photo of the lens with blue-tac.