The current monocular endoscope (rigid or flexible) is limited by a lack of 3D vision and depth perception.

Conventional monocular endoscopes pose significant physical challenges. With their use, the surgeon loses the natural, intuitive ability to perform procedures by seeing and touching affected areas directly. The surgeon is no longer looking directly at the patient's anatomy, but rather at a video monitor that provides two-dimensional images - without any guidance to judge depth, volume or distance. These limitations may cause lengthened procedure time and increased risk.

The Operating Room (OR) microscope provides depth perception, but requires a large surgical tract – thus causing limited viewing access and significantly limiting the scope of its use. Poor human engineering and costly operations further restrict its utility.

OR microscope limitations point to another limitation of MIS vision systems: as the diameter of the optic device becomes smaller, the quality of the image resolution deteriorates; in order to significantly improve resolution, diameters can no longer be truly minimally invasive.