Vision's patented Isis accessory fits in place of traditional eyepieces on mono, routine, research and stereo microscopes and gives a greater freedom of head movement which reduces fatigue
Vision Engineering, one of the world's leading innovators in optical magnification technology, has announced a new accessory to improve the performance of conventional binocular microscopes. The new Isis device can be retrofitted to a broad range of quality microscope instruments.
Vision's patented Isis accessory fits in place of traditional eyepieces on mono, routine, research and stereo microscopes and simply plugs into the existing eyepiece tubes.
Installation and set up only takes a few seconds.
Isis has been expressly designed to overcome the limitations of everyday microscope use - and deploys Vision Engineering's award-winning multilenticular technology to achieve this.
Key among the factors that impact on sustained microscope use is ergonomics.
Isis exploits Vision's newly patented expanded pupil technology to offer an exit ray bundle twelve times larger than a conventional eyepiece.
This permits a greater freedom of head movement which reduces fatigue.
In addition, Isis increases the distance between the user's eyes and the eyepiece by a factor of four, allowing operators to wear prescription spectacles or contact lenses and to avoid physical contact with the microscope instrument.
The expanded pupil image is generated by a pair of tiny multifaceted transfer disks; one for each eyepiece.
The disks are just 83mm in diameter.
Their surfaces contain over 2 million miniaturised lenticular shaped lens elements and spin at high speed to deliver an aberration-free, high-clarity image.
The choice of x10, x15 and x20 eyepieces delivers a generous effective axial operating latitude of 38mm.
A stylish mid-grey injection moulded case houses the multilenticular technology.
The case articulates around a central pivot to allow adjustment for individual preferences.
Inside, a robust cast aluminium core supports the internal components and provides the interface for the extending lens assemblies.
Twin 12V motors spin the disks and operate from an external mains-voltage PSU via a pair of jacks in the Isis housing.
Isis user adjustments include independent parfocal compensation and a range of 58mm to 76mm to accommodate inter-pupil distance variation between operators.
In addition, optional graticule modules can be fitted to one of the Isis eyepiece tubes.
In situ, graticules can be rotated via a thumbwheel.
The practical implications of Isis include more efficient and easier use of quality microscope instruments in every application.
For high magnification users in particular, the expanded pupil technology offered by Isis makes for more comfortable viewing of the outer parts of the optical field.
The system overcomes the usual requirement for users to precisely align their eye with the centre of each eyepiece.
Typically, a slight movement of the eye results in loss of part of the field of vision as the pupil moves beyond the narrow conventional ray bundle.
In contrast, the expanded ray bundle means instead that users can simply move their eyes to view the full image area, as the pupil stays within the latitude of the twelve-times-wider exit field generated by Isis.
Another Isis advantage eliminates an irritation to many microscope users - mouches volantes or 'floaters' in the eye.
These ubiquitous minor human imperfections result from tiny tissue fragments floating in the eyeball fluid and can significantly hinder microscope operations. Again, Vision's expanded exit pupil technology deployed in Isis offers a clearer and wider field of view, which prevents these elements cluttering the image.
Graham Mercer, Design Director for Vision Engineering Worldwide, believes that the important advances offered by Isis will result in all future quality microscopes being fitted with Isis expanded pupil systems to cut fatigue and improve operator performance.
"Enhancing the capability and usability of a conventional quality microscope in this way is an obvious, simple and highly cost-effective way to achieve a better return from your human and equipment resources," he says.
Currently, Isis can be hosted on stereoscopic infinity-corrected microscope systems from Leica, Meiji, Motic, Nikon, Olympus, Wild and Zeiss; and on monoscopic routine and research microscopes from Leica, Nikon, Olympus, and Zeiss.
The complete 'plug-and-play' Isis solution is priced at less than UK œ1000 and US $1600.
Production quantities will be available early in Q3 2000.
