Public Lab Uses Kickstarter Project to Bring Spectrometry to the Masses

http://www.kick...pectrometry-kit

"A spectrometer may not sound like what you wanted for your birthday, but it's
a ubiquitous tool for scientists to identify unknown materials, like oil spill
residue or coal tar in urban waterways. But they cost thousands of dollars and
are hard to use -- so we've designed our own." says the opening page of the
project on Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is a community of crowd-funded
projects in art, science, publishing, and manufacturing. Now, Jeffrey Yoo is
using this medium to fund the production of a open-sourced, inexpensive
spectrometer.

"This open hardware kit costs only $35, but has a range of more than 400-900
nanometers, and a resolution of as high as 3 nm. A spectrometer is essentially a
tool to measure the colors absorbed by a material. You can construct this one
yourself from a piece of a DVD-R, black paper, a VHS box, and an HD USB
webcam."

"We've also created open source software (spectralworkbench.org) to collect,
analyze, compare, and share calibrated spectral data. We've even made an
experimental version which converts your cellphone into a spectrometer (see
rewards)!"

Public Labs creates tools to investigate the environment, and allows individuals
to use the designs at no charge. Past projects include documenting the BP oil
spill using aerial photographs from kites and balloons.

Visit kickstarter.com to learn more, or participate in the funding of this project
to get your very own desktop spectrometer for $300.