SkyLight, an adapter that claims to connect almost any smartphone to any microscope will go on sale in March. The device's designers received funding to create the device via crowdsourcing funding site Kickstarter. The devicemakers designed the adapter so that it could upgrade older microscopes for the digital age with an eye on community healthcare workers in emerging markets as well as science classes. It fits any microscope eyepiece that has an outside diameter between one inch and 1.75 inches.

The device enables users to leverage their smartphone's camera to capture photos and videos through the microscope's eyepiece. Those images can then be uploaded, emailed, and shared. Users can also share the captured images in real-time as well as through collaborative video conferencing software.

The SkyLight adapter aims to be intuitive and easy to use. Here are the four steps given by the device's makers: 1) Use one or more rubber inserts to size the SkyLight to the microscope eyepiece and tighten the thumbscrew so that the SkyLight fits snugly over the eyepiece of the microscope. 2) Place a smartphone on the stage between the two clips. 3) Slide the smartphone up and down and left to right until the image from the microscope is centered over the smartphone camera. 4) Slide the Skylight along the eyepiece to get a crisp image and tighten the thumbscrew to lock it in place.

"For the health worker in Malawai, Africa, the SkyLight will enable circa 1980 microscopes to send diagnostic images to the nearest doctor, who may be separated by hundreds of miles," the team writes over at its Kickstarter page.

Visit the SkyLight site for more.