I was doing some online shopping for headphones for #1 son when I came upon this.
This is just so frickin' cool I can't stand it. From the copy:
Get children and adults to play the smart way with the QX3+ USB Computer Microscope. The QX3 microscope magnifies anything from 10x all the way to 200x. You can view everything from the pre-prepared slide of a honeybee leg to a close up of your own tongue.
The QX3 Microscope is not only a microscope though, it also serves as a multi-function digital camera for taking digital still images and creating time-lapse movies.
Obviously my inner geek is rearing its cute little head. I wish I were 10 and my parents would give this to me for Christmas. I wish (well, almost) that one of my kids were 10 again so I could give it to him. Unfortunately it just doesn't seem like a suitable gift for an artsy 17-yo computer geek or a 22-yo economics major who will enter med school next fall. Or maybe it would suit the 17-yo; he could take all manner of highly-magnified photos and PhotoShop them to his heart's content. Trouble is that I've already got his gifts.
[review from PC Magazine quoted in the copy] "It's rugged and well designed, with a smoothly rotating barrel that lets you choose among the three magnifications. It's also an electronic tour de force, with a USB video camera in the head. The camera automatically adjusts to a very wide variety of lighting conditions, even to supplemental sources. The software allows further adjustments, so that good images are all but assured. Once you've gotten used to the many capabilities of the QX3, your first question will be, "How did they do all this for $99?" [Note: it's only $72.95 on the site where I found it.]
Disclaimer: I have no connection with CompuVisor (the site where I found it) or Digital Blue (the manufacturer, although the copy implies that the item was originally designed and manufactured by Intel or Mattel).
I may just have to buy this and decide later who it is for.
