A New Anatomical Vision: Liver Surgery on the Screen

Abstract

Shall we see through a camera better than with our eyes? The question, still appropriate at the present time, dates back to the seventeenth century. It seemsthat Vermeer, and then Canaletto some decades later, introduced in their paintings the use of the camera obscura, or optic camera (Figs. 14.1, 14.2). The simplest arrangement, with a lens fastened in the pinhole, projected an inversed and reversed image on a vertical screen opposite the aperture. A variation on this employed a translucent screen, allowing the viewer to see the image from the other side, thereby correcting the left-to-right reversal. These two types of cameras projected the image directly and could be combined in one device. The optical camera obscura ushered in a new approach to optics, opening up new views of the visible world and shaping a new understanding of vision itself.