Tempest includes computers, software, input sensors, and output actuators. All control a specific device. A remote device with an embedded system can be controlled over the internet by a user with a computer and a web browser. Other examples of devices with embedded systems are cars, household appliances, industrial machinery, and NASA space experiments. The slide holder contains up to 360 slides.
Users can choose a slide, position the microscope over it and download high-quality color images.
The magnification range is 100-300 with resolutions to 3 microns. The system will include a 10x infinity corrected microscope objective with either a 6.5x or 10x zoom lens, and a 1x tube conneted to a standard color CCD camera. It also will have a motorized zoom and focus. Once the microscope and lenses were finalized, York said they had to work a few bugs out of the system. To be useful, the students had to be able to pick from hundreds of slides.