The RCM 8000 real-time confocal microscope main system integrates a multi-line visible Kripton Argon Ion laser. The main body of this confocal system consists of two principle modules: (1) a dual laser/dual photometer detector-based scanning module, and (2) a real-time imaging (DataCube) module for real-time acquisition, processing, and storage of image information under three different spectral ranges, using single wavelength, two-color dual wavelength, and using dual emission confocal images. Such a system adds to the fundamental power of light microscopy the ability to view specimens under analysis where nothing is out-of-focus. Traditionally, light microscopes provided focused information on regions immediately surrounding the focal plane of the specimen under analysis, while the remainder regions contributed out-of-focus information. With a confocal microscope, the out-of-focus information, which basically degrades or contaminates the observed data, is removed. The spatial resolutions offered through the confocal microscope exceed the current theoretical limitations. Clearly, the confocal microscope will and is bringing about new theoretical and practical developments in the biomedical field, in diverse other industrial applications, and in major research institutions. Major research institutions such as Cornell, Stanford, Duke, and U.C. Berkeley, to name a few, are presently taking a lead in this new research field and exploiting what may well be the truest image formation there is to exploit at this juncture. From this viewpoint, we foresee tremendous potential growth in biomedical as well as other industrial applications, specifically in the area of how scientists will view, analyze, and understand such three-dimensional image formation -based processes.

3-D Reconstruction

For a 3-D Animation click on the picture:

The file is 93 kilobytes, and you need Quick Time to view the movie.