A mechanical oscilloscope for vision research

A “mechanical oscilloscope” is described in which a lightbeam (Z-axis) is projected via a single front aluminized moving mirror. The mirror is mounted in a suspension frame allowing the simultaneous rotation about two mutually perpendicular axes. The linear displacements of two loudspeaker-coils are transformed mechanically into mirror rotations and an electronic position/velocity feedback control system is used to drive the loudspeakers. The bandwidth of the resulting X- and Y-axis deflection systems is of the order of 100–200 Hz. The flexibility of Z-axis control (colour, pattern, intensity, etc.) makes this instrument an attractive component of light stimulation systems for psychophysical or electrophysiological studies of vision.