Carl Zeiss Meditec Gmbh

Chris Baker

Matthew J Everett

Kabir Arianta

A motorized head supporting and positioning apparatus is disclosed, such as is useful for eye examination or treatment. The apparatus includes head-receiving supports, which can include a forehead rest and a chinrest, which can be linked by a single arm assembly. A main assembly of the apparatus contains a motor assembly, which can include three motors driven in a coupled manner to guide a head along a three-dimensional path at a speed that is comfortable to the patient. The apparatus can be relatively compact, owing at least in part to a pivoted approximate Z-axis movement along the optical axis. In addition to open-loop operation, the apparatus can be used with a tracking subsystem to achieve closed-loop positioning in real time, as well as to enable the activation of an examination/treatment instrument when the eye is brought within an acceptable tolerance of a desired position.

Motorized patient support for eye examination or treatment

An accurate measure of eye length can be obtained using concurrent OCT measurements. A position OCT device can be used to continually monitor the position of the front surface of the cornea, while a distance OCT device can determine the apparent distance between the front surface of the cornea and the front surface of the retina. Since the eye is likely to move during the period of time between measurements of the cornea and retina, the monitored position of the cornea can be used to correct the apparent length measurement by the amount of eye movement over that period of time, in order to obtain an accurate measure of eye length. In some embodiments a single OCT device can serve the dual role of monitoring eye position while making eye length measurements.

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Moraga, CA, United States of America

Chris Baker