The eyewear on the surgeons assembles the projected image into a 3D version. The TrueVision system can be used in any application with a stereomicroscope. It has also been effective teaching microsurgery and surgical procedures, including cataract surgery, where the surgeons and the assistants never looked into eyepieces.

A 3D vision system for microsurgeries let's surgeons see the procedure on a high-definition screen instead of having to hunch over microscopes. Some doctors have called it Imax (the large concave-screen theaters) for the operating room. The optical image ordinarily viewed through a microscope is converted by equipment from TrueVision Systems, Santa Barbara, Calif. (truevisionsys.com

Digital imaging lets users combine 3D images from the microscope with other medical image sources such as surgical planning, CT, and MRI data. The system saves and retrieves images and video at the touch of a button for record keeping, documentation, and sharing without giving up the resolution, color, and stereo depth found in the original optical image.