The Scope USB microscope

There are plenty of uses for a USB microscope, but one of the main selling points of The Scope seems to be for inspecting men's hair loss.  But hey, if there's a market, who are we to argue?  The device is Windows and Macintosh compatible and has a 1/4-inch color CCD (effective 310,000 pixels) and 50x magnification.  No word on price yet or availability outside of Japan.

[isitart @ Dec 19th 2005 2:13AM]

This USB microscope has been out for years in the US as the ProScope. The Proscope has detachable lenses and a stand. There are drivers and software for both Mac and Windows.
See http://www.theproscope.com/

[Joey @ Dec 19th 2005 2:13AM]

I swore I saw this the other night on CSI. (The original one.)

I had to laugh though, they had the imagines being feed into a clear mock up of a Mac OS X screen, pasted onto a Dell monitor. I'm surprised that one of the two didn't just explode on screen.

[Tim Lynch @ Dec 19th 2005 2:13AM]

I have had one for years and it is great - works great on my Thinkpad and PowerBook.
If I remember correctly it cost me $179
It is very easy to use.

[Eric @ Dec 19th 2005 2:13AM]

You can buy it here in the states from retailers like CyberGuys. Lenses are available for magnifications up to 200X. Just search for "microscope" on www.cyberguys.com

[Peter White @ Dec 19th 2005 2:13AM]

As director of marketing and development for the ProScope we have been in the US for nearly 5 years. We have global sales to over 96k schools and 4,000 law enforcement agencies. Wired TEST gave us a 5 star rating and yes you did see us on CSI. In fact the ProScope is on all three CSI series here in the US and is a regular on talk shows.