Software defined surgical stereo microscope

A software defined surgical visual aid platform as an alternative to the existing fixed form optical surgical microscope is described. A software defined digital stereo microscope, similar in principle as an endoscope, decouples the light gathering components and functions from those for light processing and image visualization components and provides digital implementations for the latter. It comprises an array of zoom cameras replacing the microscope objective, a realtime graphics engine pipeline replacing the optical processing pipeline, a flat screen 3D display replacing the oculars and a set of surgeon and procedure presets replacing the initial mechanical setting up of the microscope. The user interfaces for focus and zoom control are retained through the familiar foot pedal and additional interaction devices such as 3D measurement tools are added on demand for analysis and documentation. It replicates and augments the functionality of the optical stereo microscope, but removes the usage limitations of the optical pipeline. To be an effective surgical microscope, the realtime nature of the optical stereo microscope and the hand-eye collocation ability must be retained in this alternative visual aid.