The power of the screen

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Thomson Software Solutions

Thomson's computerised test charts are ubiquitous with over 6,000 users in the UK alone and there is continuing interest in the products and the regular software updates that go with them. However, there are three new developments about to hit the market. After three years in gestation, he was keen to demonstrate the novel 3D monitor (Figure 1). Instead of using circular polarisation employed by standard 3D monitors, the new monitor uses linear polarisation. The unit uses a high quality LCD screen with a very fine polarising filter over it so that the odd rows of pixels are polarised at 45 degrees while the even rows are polarised at 135 degrees. With the patient wearing polarising filters, this arrangement allows stimuli to be presented to either eye individually or binocularly and opens up exciting new opportunities for binocular vision testing and refraction. The unit is available as a standalone monitor or with its own solid state computer, for which there is no need for a fan, so making it compact and capable of full function without any further hardware.