All Over But the Funding: Open Hardware Spectrometer Kit 62
New submitter mybluevan writes "The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science is putting together an open hardware spectrometer kit
on Kickstarter. The kits are built using an HD webcam, discarded DVD, and a couple other odd bits. They've also put together a kit for your smart phone and open-source software for desktop, Android, and iOS. Need to analyze the contents of your coffee, the output of your new grow lights, or a distant star on a budget? Just build your own spectrometer, or pick up the limited edition steampunk version."
Besides making cool hardware, they'd like to "build a Wikipedia-style library of open source spectra, and to refine and improve sample collection and analysis techniques. We imagine a kind of 'SHAZAM for materials' which can help to investigate chemical spills, diagnose crop diseases, identify contaminants in household products, and even analyze olive oil, coffee, and homebrew beer."
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
A use for all those Windows ME disks!
(You need a DVD as a diffraction grating.)
Spectrometers can get you tail! (Score:5, Funny)
Back when I was in University in 2001 (U Waterloo - Independent Studies) one of the guys found a spectrometer for sale at the weekly physical plant surplus sale for fifty bucks so he just set it up in the IS lounge (which was in the middle of the Psych building) so people could come in and analyze whatever they wanted. It was great for inviting hippies in to charge up crystals with very specific wavelengths to increase harmonic resonance.