What is a Microscope Video Camera? Learn About How Microscope Video Cameras Improve Medical and Scientific Research
In the old days when scientists study cell specimens they would have to store their slides for future study. How the early scientists would have wished that they could record the cell movements and preserve it for future generations to further their research on the subject.
Their wish has now been made a reality with the invention of the microscope video camera. You may have watched some science documentaries with images of cell movement and thought nothing much about what you have seen. Well, such images are recorded with a microscope video camera.
If you’re interested in digital video you would surely love to know how a microscope video camera works. What’s the difference between a microscope that comes with a video camera and a conventional one?
The microscope video camera has a lens built into the microscope’s eyepiece. This lens is connected to the device that records what the lens sees. The recording is stored in the device’s memory. Images recorded by the device can then be sent through a USB port to a computer. Hence there’s a permanent record of cell behavior for us to study in the future.
These images captured by the device are of high resolution. They can be edited in your computer. An important advantage of studying recorded images in your computer is the ability to enlarge them to make a detailed study of what has been captured. As we are in the Internet age, these images could be annotated with notes and emailed or shared with the rest of the scientific community around the world to provoke discussion and further research.
Let’s look at the other advantages of the microscope video camera.
One of the problems associated with studying the cell specimens through a microscope is the strain placed on the eye when looking through the eyepiece for long period of period of time. The microscope video camera eliminates this problem. What the microscope lens see can be projected over the computer screen for easy study. Samples under study can be easily enlarged for comfortable viewing.
If you are teaching a class or conducting a training session, you could have what is captured by the microscope video camera on to a large screen via a projector. All you will need is a TV output on your laptop or desktop computer and you can have your students viewing what they normally see by crowding around the microscope.
Video camera microscopes are of the plug and play type and can be easily installed to your computer through a USB 2.0 port. There’s no need for batteries as the microscope is powered through the USB port.
Video camera microscopes have certainly sped up medical, scientific and forensic research. They could only get better with the improvement in digital video technology.
