The Virtual Microscope is a development project at The Open University between the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group and the Department of Earth Sciences.
The provision of virtual instrumentation, the effective emulation of expensive equipment or difficult scientific procedures is a domain where significant cost savings and real educational worth can be demonstrated for multimedia. The Virtual Microscope, for example, can be used to allow students to rotate a rock sample whilst viewing it in plane polarized and cross polarized light simultaneously - something which is not possible with a conventional microscope.
The Virtual Microscope is presented on CD-ROM. The 12 thin sections on the disc can be viewed either using a hand lens or microscope. The microscope images can be rotated by 3 different methods. For a full review, see Doug Robinson's Terra Nova article (courtesy Blackwell's Scientific Publications).
Note: Images in these online versions are shown smaller than the full-screen CD-ROM version. A Netscape 3 and 4 prototype using streaming QuickTime Shockwave interactive movie Static screenshots
	KMi Home Page: kmi.open.ac.uk Purchase a copy of the microscope (see digital microscope): www.ouw.co.uk/products/S260_CDR_E.shtm Info about OU resources: www.ouw.co.uk