ThirdEye Video

The Dental Camera of the Future

Your Patients will be AMAZED!

ThirdEye set includes:

- ThirdEye-dental camera (lens; f: 35mm) with integrated microphone.

- Miniture camera holder (mount).

- AC power supply with Audio/Video out (composite).

- Camera cable.

- Lens hood (black, autoclavable).

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Example of the ThirdEye’s quality still images:

Depth of Focus Full Mouth

Root Resection-Distance 80 cm.

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ThirdEyethe dental camera of the future

User Manual

Adjusting the Manual White Balance
The ThirdEye dental camera can be operated both in automatic or manual white balance mode.
The preferred mode should be the manual white balance, because in this mode only, you will have optimal color reproduction under any lighting conditions.
To adjust the manual white balance direct your dental light with the camera onto a white sheet of paper in front of your patients mouth or in front of the head rest of the dental unit. Now push the red button on top of the camera towards the housing (short button). That´s all! Check the colors of the gingiva of your patient or the colors of your skin on the monitor.



The depth-of-focus
The depth of focus of a lens varies with the focal length, the aperture (the size of the opening of an iris or diaphragm) of the iris and the working distance (distance between lens and object). The depth of focus, further, depends on the illumination of the object to be shot. The higher the illumination (measured in lux) by the dental lamp, the smaller the aperture of the iris (and electronic iris!) can be and the wider the dephth of focus will be. The lens of the ThirdEye dental camera has a fixed iris (besides the electronic iris built in the ccd chip) with a diameter (aperture) of 3mm. This aperture ensures sufficient light falling onto the ccd chip with all dental lights on the market even those with less lighting intensity.




Focussing the Lens
We all prefer a certain working-distance - distance of the front of the dental light to the mouth of the patient - of our dental-light. With good illumination the camera must be focused to the tooth we are treating only once. Slight changes of the position of the dental light do not need new focussing but are compensated by the wide depth of field of the system and the image remains sharp.
However, if the alteration of the distance is big - more than 10 to 20 cm - you have to focus again. To focus just turn the outer tube of the lens.







Why no autofocus?
You wonder, why isn’t there an autofocus feature integrated in the ThirdEye dental camera?
There is a simple reason for that. It wouldn´t work! An autofocus normally adjusts the focus to the middle of the shot, in our case our working area. Now, if we were not working in the patients mouth all would be fine. The autofocus would focus to the tooth you want to show to the patient. But, as soon as the patient would move their head or we would be working with our dental mirror or fingers in front of that tooth surface the autofocus would nervously focus back and forth, the image would not be sharp at all.
You won´t be able to video tape a whole treatment with a built-in and activated autofocus!




The Lens Hood
The outer tube of the lens is the only part of the camera touched by our hands. To prevent a contamination of the lense, we deliver a special lense-protection. This lens hood is made out of polypropylene. This material can be disinfected in the disinfection bath or even be autoclaved. The lens hood simultaneously serves as sun shade and ray shade. It prevents other light sources - for example your light on the ceiling, day light falling through a window - falling onto the front lens, thus reducing contrast of the system. The lens hood allows focussing.









Taking Shots With the Dental Mirror
If you want to shoot subjects or tooth surfaces only visible with your mirror the light of your dental light should come out of the direction of your head. The central beam of the dental light then will be parallel to your visial axis. What you see in your dental mirror will be what you get on the monitor screen*.

* provided your dental assistant controls the focus






Rotation of the Camera

You can rotate the camera on the miniature camera stand for about 180 degrees.
Thus you always can adjust the lip line or the teeth arch to the horizontal in whatever the position the patient´s head might be.

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ThirdEyethe dental camera of the future

Assembly Instructions

Assembly of the Miniature Camera Stand




Independent of the type of dental light, the miniature stand is mounted on the center of the lens of that light.

Before mounting the miniature camera stand to the dental light, the base of the mounting stand and the lens of the light must be cleaned and degreased with alcohol and a clean cloth.












For the later adjustment of the camera, a cross of adhesive tape is taped on the camera surface of the mounting stand. The free ends of the tape must extend at least one centimeter beyond the edges.








With a cement spatula a thin layer Hylosil® silicone glue is painted on the base of the mounting stand. For dental lights with a relief on their front side (e.g. Siemens M1, Sirona E, Pelton Crane etc.) the silicone layer must be somewhat thicker. The stand with silicone adhesive is mounted on the center of lens of the light and pressed on slightly, until some silicone seeps out beyond the edges.
Recommendation:
For the temporary attachment of the miniature stand you can use a polyether impression material like e.g. Impregum.







It is important to fix the stand in the correct position, so that the fixing screws are accessible later. For right handed operators the mount should be placed so that the screws face the three and twelve oclock positions. (with the view of the light front side)
Now the ends of the tapes are pressed down to secure the mounting plate and the light screen is turned upward.








The curing of the silicone takes 2-12 hours. This depends on the thickness of the silicone layer placed(the thicker the layer the longer is the curing time). The curing can be accelerated however by heat generated by the dental light when tutned on. For this reason the light should remain switched on for 2-3 hours.





Laying of the Camera Cable

To conceal the camera cable, it can be fed through the post of the dental light. The diameter of the cable is only 5 mm and the diameters of the cable plug is 12 mm). The cable can be mounted to the light post using plastic ties.
Please notice: For feeding the camera cable into the light post it may be necessary to drill a small hole into the front side of the light post (often plastic parts). Drilling the hole may void your dental light warranty (medical products law). We leave it up to you to drill this hole by yourself or have a technician from your dental supplier drill this hole and lay the cable for you. A faster more conveinent, but less attractive way to lay the camera cable is through the use of cable ties, cable canals or adhesive tape stuck to the outside of the dental light tubes.





Important: In order to ensure the full mobility of the light head, a cable reserve must be present. The best way to test the length of the necessary cable reserve is to attach the camera to the stand, connect the cable plug to the camera socket and hold the camera cable to that point, where the cable is to be laid into the light tube. Now move the light head to any possible direction. The cable should not be strained in any position or be in contact to hot surfaces of the dental light.
Note: The camera cable may be broken when squeezed or be laid in to close bends.






Connection of the Monitor

The plug of the camera cable is connected with the camera socket at the connection box.

Simply latch the plug (fits in one position only!) in the socket. To loosen the plug just pull out the high-grade steel ring.
From the camera junction box the Video and Audio out leads are connected to the Video and Audio in sockets of the monitor.
These two cables must possess so-called Cinch plugs.
Professional monitors have so-called BNC sockets. In this case you need a BNC-Cinch adapter.






Most TV devices have so-called Scart connectors. In order to attach the camera to ordinary TV equipment, you need a Scart adapter, which has Cinch sockets. LCD monitors, which are suitable for video and/or TV, often possess Scart and Cinch sockets.




Scart Connector (pictured above)


Another word to the monitor:
Unfortunately the image quality of most LCD monitors cannot yet be compared to the image quality of a professional broadcast monitor (CRT = cathode ray tube = picture tube). That is not a resolution issue, but due to the weak contrast ratio of the LCD monitors. Nevertheless, if you want to use an LCD monitor (= TFT monitor) in your practice, then the contras ratio of the monitor should be at least 500: 1. Right now, there are monitors with a contrast ratio of 800:1 or even 1.000:1 on the market and the technology of flat monitors is advancing very fast. There are already plasma monitors with a contrast ratio of 2.000:1 and more. If you do not want to save the shots of the TirdEye dental camera as still images on a computer, but record video sequences to DVD or video tape, we recommend a professional tube monitor or normal TV equipment!


Attachment of the Camera
Once the monitor is connected to the connector box the camera is attached on the dental light.



First you should plug the cable plug into the socket of the camera housing. Since this is possible only in one position, you should turn camera and cable plug somewhat in opposite directions, until the plug engages.










Now the camera with the groove on its rear side can be pushed onto the
disk of the miniature stand. Now you can plug the power supply plug of the connector box into the socket and switch the monitor on.






Adjustment of the Camera



Now the optic axis of the camera lens must be aligned to the central beam of the dental light.

For this reason stick one of the test mouth labels on the head rest of the dental chair. Turn the dental light on and direct the light beam of the dental light towards the test mouth.









Having guided the camera with the left hand so that the test mouth appears in the center of the light beam, the right hand tightens the fixing screws of the miniature stand with the enclosed allen screw driver (this explanation is for right handed dentists only)

The test mouth should be visible something above the center of the light bundle. Thus dazzling of your patient can be prevented later. Shake something at the camera as a check. The image always should remain fixed on the centre of the light beam of the dental light !



Finished!
By the way: The camera is appropriate for continuous operation. With a current consumption of fewer than a Watt you do not need not disconnect the camera from the power supply. It is sufficient to switch off the connector box in the evening.


Care
The ThirdEye dental camera and the connectors are well protected against sprays, yet you should never spray the camera itself with any disinfectant. The camera and the lens, the lens being the only part touched with the hand, can be wiped off with a disinfection cloth. Best if the camera is used with the enclosed lens hood only. Since the lens hood screens light coming through windows (e.g. sky light) or from ceiling lights, the contrast of the camera will even improve by using the lens hood.
The lens hood itself (polypropylene) can be cleaned and desinfected in any desinfectant solution and even be autoclaved (135o C)

For cleaning the front lens you should use a soft lens pencil, if only dust is to be removed. To remove stain from the water spray, greasy finger-prints or splashes of disinfectant you should use a soft rag. Simply breathe on the lens and wipe off. In the case of strong contamination on the lens you can use some petroleum ether on a soft rag for the cleaning. If, after some time, the lens should become dirty inside (e.g. penetrating steams, humidity), then the front part of the lens can be screwed off and the lens can be cleaned from inside. Breathe on the inner lens surface and use a new cotton swab to clean the lens. During cleaning the inner lens surface always slip the lens hood over the inner lens tube, so that no dust can fall onto the CCD chip in the camera housing.

Maintenance
The ThirdEye Dental camera is maintenance-free for a long time. Because of contamination or lack of optic fat (only use special optics fat; not use vaseline!) the lens can become difficult to focus in the course of the years. In this case please return the camera to us for professional cleaning (only small fee). If you intend not using the camera for a longer period of time, keep the camera in the ThirdEye black box.

Recommended Connections/Setup

The decision to integrate our camera into an existing system (e.g. intraoral camera) or to buy all the components (monitor, mounts, foot switch...) by yourself that is up to you. But let us give you some advice which components would work best with our ThirdEye dental camera.