Case Study · Medical / Inspection microscope

Seoul National University Hospital: Dhaula 15.6″ for Inspection Microscope Imaging

Inspection microscope images in 3D, without the eyepieces

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital's Simulation Center has introduced the Dhaula 15.6″ glasses-free 3D display in its reading room and is piloting an environment in which the stereoscopic image of an inspection microscope is viewed on a display instead of through the eyepieces. A camera on each eyepiece captures what the left and right eye would see, and the video passes through a PC to the Dhaula 15.6″, which shows it in 3D.

An inspection microscope is used by putting both eyes to the eyepieces. When reading the fine structure of a specimen, depth — how high a surface rises, which layer a structure sits in — matters, so a microscope capable of stereoscopic observation sends a slightly different view to each eyepiece. Getting that depth means holding your eyes fixed to the eyepieces. Head bent, neck and shoulders locked for long periods, the posture builds up fatigue and tension, and the field of view is confined to the eyepieces, making it hard to look at anything else.

Capturing the microscope image with a camera and sending it to a flat monitor lets you look up and sit comfortably, but the depth you saw through the eyepieces is gone. When you need to check which layer a structure is in or how far a surface rises, you end up going back to the eyepieces. The reader's choice was either the depth of the eyepieces or the comfortable posture of a monitor.

A glasses-free 3D display delivers both at once. Capture the two viewpoints the left and right eyepieces provide with one camera each, send them to the display's left- and right-eye images as they are, and you see the same depth without putting your eyes to the eyepieces. There is one more condition: no new software to build. To keep adoption easy, it should be enough to take the video from an existing microscope camera solution and display it.

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital's Simulation Center introduced the Dhaula 15.6″ glasses-free 3D display in its reading room and is piloting it. The video goes through three stages: cameras on the eyepieces capture the left and right images, a PC turns them into glasses-free 3D, and the Dhaula 15.6″ shows them stereoscopically.

How it fits together

A camera goes on each eyepiece because depth comes from the difference between two viewpoints. The microscope already sends slightly different images to the left and right eyepieces, and we perceive depth from that difference. The two cameras capture those two images in place of the left and right eye, and the glasses-free 3D display sends them back to the left and right eye, so the depth seen through the eyepieces is reproduced on the display.

Not using the eyepieces means a different viewing posture. The Dhaula 15.6″ can be set at eye level with a VESA mount, so instead of bending to bring your eyes to the eyepieces, you look at the screen sitting at the desk as you are. Because your eyes are away from the screen, shifting your gaze to notes or another monitor during reading is natural. The 15.6-inch size was chosen for exactly this close-range reading position.

The setup also divides roles cleanly. Capture is handled by a MOPIC customer's microscope camera solution; display by MOPIC's Hub and display. A hospital uses equipment rather than building it, so unlike Solectrix, which integrated the Native 3D SDK into its own viewer, it only needs to connect the camera output to Hub. Observation video recorded in SBS can also be reviewed in 3D on the same display.

Inspection microscope images without eyepieces

In the reading room, the microscope image can now be observed in 3D without putting your eyes to the eyepieces. The depth of fine structures can be checked in a comfortable, head-up posture, free of the fatigue and restricted view that come with holding your eyes to the eyepieces.

Connected to the existing camera solution without development

Because MOPIC Hub takes the camera solution's SBS video as it is and converts it, the hospital connected the existing microscope camera to a glasses-free 3D display without developing any software.

The same setup can be extended

A simple setup — camera solution, PC with Hub, and display — means the same configuration can be added to other reading rooms or microscopes depending on the results of the pilot.

Not limited to inspection microscopes. Any equipment observed stereoscopically through eyepieces can get an eyepiece-free viewing environment with the same setup.