3D TV's Killer App? Microsurgery!
By Rachel Cericola
Waking up during surgery sounds like a nightmare. Waking up during surgery and seeing your insides on a 3D TV sounds, well... kind of cool. As long as you've got your 3D glasses on. Well, even better if the doctor has got his 3D glasses on.
About a year ago, TrueVision 3D Surgical started using JVC's 46-inch GD-463D10U 3D LCD Monitor in its surgical rotation. So instead of having to look through a microscope, or view 3D images on a cumbersome projection screen, doctors can view precise surgical procedures on a 1080p HD monitor not terribly different from the one you may use this summer to watch 3D coverage of the World Cup.
"Basically, in surgery, visualization is everything," explained Rob Reali, vice president of operations and marketing. "The better the surgeon can see, the better the surgery is probably going to go. TrueVision frees the surgeon from the bondage of being stuck on the eyepiece."
Having the surgeon see is definitely a good thing. Other perks allow surgeons to view patient data and images from the exam room -- all in 3D 1080p resolution.
Also, the big screen makes it much easier for the entire surgical team to follow what the doctor is doing.
Like most 3D implementations, this unit does require glasses. However, they aren't the same ones that come with most of today's new 3D sets. According to Reali, shutter glasses cause too many problems in the operating room. Instead, the TrueVision system combines JVC's Xpol polarizing filter with passive 3D glasses for flicker-free 3D HD images. The technology is similar to that used in 3D theaters which also use polarization in both the projector and in the glasses to separate out the left and right eye images, allowing your brain to perceive the image in 3D.
To date, there are dozens of TrueVision systems using the JVC GD-463D10U 3D TV. Prior to that, the system came with two projectors and a cumbersome folding screen. The JVC unit gives doctors a better view, with a better response time and greater portability.
"TrueVision's image quality is so good, neurosurgeons use it to perform surgery directly from the screen," added Forrest Fleming, CEO, TrueVision Systems. "That says a lot about JVC's 3D display technology."
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