Microscope Touch Panel Controller with Peripheral Functional Areas
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current microscope controllers with touch panel functions lack operability improvements, requiring users to look away from the eyepiece lens to verify button positions, which deteriorates microscope operation efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A microscope controller with a touch panel unit, controlling unit, and communication controlling unit that sets functional areas along the periphery, allowing drag operations to control motorized units without looking away, using positional markers like frame-shaped convex parts and level differences for accurate area recognition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a touch panel unit is used for controlling microscope components, then the ease of operation is improved, but the user must look away from the eyepiece lens to verify button positions, which reduces productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies visual feedback through color changes and brightness adjustments on the touch panel display to indicate operational states, selected object positions, and control feedback. This allows users to verify operations and positions without looking away from the eyepiece, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements multiple feedback mechanisms including visual feedback on the touch panel display showing current positions, selected objects, and operational states. This feedback system enables users to confirm operations immediately without visual verification of physical buttons, maintaining both ease of operation and productivity
2Ease of operation
If functional areas are set along the periphery of the touch panel, then the ease of operation is improved through drag operations, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the touch panel into functional areas along the periphery, with each area corresponding to specific control functions. This segmentation enables intuitive drag operations for different microscope components while organizing complexity into manageable, functionally-grouped zones
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic functional areas that can be selectively activated and deactivated based on operational context. The drag operation targets and selected objects determine which functional areas are active, allowing the interface to adapt to current needs without permanent complexity
3Ease of operation
If positional markers like frame-shaped convex parts are added to the touch panel, then the ease of operation is improved through accurate area recognition, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses visual indicators on the touch panel display to highlight and identify functional areas, replacing or supplementing physical positional markers. The display shows boundary lines, color-coded zones, and graphical indicators that guide users to correct areas without adding complex physical structures
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual representation of the microscope's optical path and components on the touch panel display, with graphical icons and visual markers that correspond to physical components. This virtual copying provides intuitive positional recognition without requiring complex physical markers on the panel itself
Data Source
AI summary
A microscope controller that performs operations for controlling operations of motorized units configuring a microscope system includes a touch panel unit that accepts an input made with an external physical contact and has a display function, a controlling unit for setting a display area as a functional area by assigning an image for operating the motorized unit to a certain display area on the touch panel unit and for generating a control instruction signal for controlling the motorized unit in accordance with a contact operation performed for the motorized unit corresponding to the functional area upon detection of an input made in the functional area, and a communication controlling unit for transmitting the control instruction signal to an external device that controls an operation of the motorized unit.