Micromanipulation using stereoscopic microscope

In this paper, the authors developed a visual feedback system that controls a micromanipulator so that a needle head may reach a target. The system consists of a stereoscopic microscope, a micromanipulator, two CCD cameras and a personal computer. The positions of the target and the needle head under a stereoscopic microscope are measured three dimensionally by using two CCD cameras which are set to eyepieces of the microscope. In order that the micromanipulation can be carried out at a realistic rate, it is necessary that the image processing employed be fast. The image processing time for detecting the target and the needle head is greatly reduced by using image data compression