Abstract: An accessory is provided to convert a conventional microscope to a microspectrofluorimeter. The accessory includes a filter disc having bandpass filters separated by opaque segments. The filter disc is rapidly and continuously rotated to move the filter sequentially into the optical path between a wideband light source and a microscope sample. Photon counting of radiation from the sample is synchronized to the position of the filters during rotation by means of synchronization marks on the filter disc. The same accessory may be positioned between the sample and a detector to detect emitted light of different frequencies.

Abstract: A reference display system that receives information from an imaging system (e.g., a CT scanner or the like), that extracts or derives three-dimensional anatomical and/or pathological information about a part of a body (e.g., the brain or other organ) of a patient. The information is digitized in the imaging system and is introduced to a computer that is programmed to reformat the digitized information to provide as output electric signal representative of the digitized information. An optical display system (e.g., a cathode ray tube, CRT, and related circuitry) is connected to receive the output of the computer and is operable to present the reformatted information at a determined plane during an operative procedure. An operating microscope is freely located in the operative location relative to the patient during the operative procedure, the focal plane of the microscope establishing the determined plane.