Light Microscopy: A Prototype For A Remote Image Diagnosis System

Telemedicine provides doctors with access to remotely-located resources and empowers diagnosis and consultation over a network connection. Key objectives of telemedicine are to decrease the cost and increase the efficiency of medical service. This thesis presents an example of an advanced telemedicine application. A prototype system for remote image diagnosis using an optical microscope was designed and implemented. This system allows for remote control of a light microscope in the 10Mbps switched ethernet environment. The design uses H.261 video streaming technology and a highresolution video camera for image transfer. To manipulate the microscope remotely, two separate TCP/IP sockets over the same ethernet connection are used: one for image transfer, the other to control the different components of the microscope. This system can also operate with improved real-time images if higher-speed connections such as ATM are available. Thesis Supervisor: C. Forbes Dewey Title: Professor, MIT Mechanical Engineering Department