Controller for a surgical microscope and method

2:

• The controller according to claim 1, configured to determine the first image region and the second image region in real-time.

3:

• The controller according to claim 1, configured to determine the first image region and the second image region by spectral unmixing.

4:

• The controller according to claim 1, further configured to control an illumination unit of the surgical microscope to emit illumination light for illuminating the target area and to generate at least one reflectance image based on the received light.

6:

• The controller according to claim 4, configured to determine the first image region and the second image region based on the reflectance image.

7:

• The controller according to claim 1, configured to determine the first image region and the second image region using machine learning.

8:

• The controller according to claim 1, further configured to generate a composite image from the first image region and the image of the target area and to control an output unit of the surgical microscope to display the image of the target area and/or the composite image.

9:

• The controller according to claim 8, configured to generate the composite image from the first image region, the second image region, and the image of the target area;
• wherein the first image region has a first color, and the second image region has a second color, the second color being different from first color.

10:

• The controller according to claim 8, configured to generate the composite image from the first image region, the second image region, and the image of the target area;
• wherein the first image region or the second image region is a blinking overlay over the image of the target area.

11:

• The controller according to claim 1, wherein the first and second wavelength bands do not overlap.

13:

• The surgical microscope according to claim 12, comprising an output unit.

14:

• The surgical microscope according to claim 12, wherein the optical detection unit comprises at least one microscope objective that is directed at the target area, and configured to receive the light from the target area.

15:

• The surgical microscope according to claim 12, wherein the optical detection unit comprises at least two detector elements and a beam splitter configured to direct the received light having a wavelength in the first wavelength band onto a first detector element, and to direct received light having a wavelength in the second wavelength band onto a second detector element.

16:

• The surgical microscope according to claim 12, wherein the optical detection unit comprises a multispectral camera or a hyper spectral camera configured to generate the first spectral channel and the second spectral channel.