Natus Medical, Inc.

John Allison

Yan Zhou

Willem Crone

An eye-imaging apparatus including red, green, and blue light sources, one or more optical lenses, a light guide cable to transmit light from the light source, a one-chip color image sensor including a shutter, the color image sensor being operable to measure red, green, and blue light in the imaging path and transmit measured colored light in respective red, green, and blue channels. The red, green, and blue light sources are sequentially flashed in synchronization with the operation of the image sensor and the color image sensor captures red, green, and blue images in synchronization with the flashed color. The color image sensor transmits the colored images on respective color channels one at a time.

Eye-imaging apparatus and method employing sequential flashing of illumination light in synchronization with the operation of an image sensor

An eye-imaging apparatus and system is described including circular fiber array ends arranged at skewed angles relative to the optical axis of the imaging path, a light intensity distribution converter along the illumination path to convert a bell-shaped distribution into a top-hat distribution, an image sensor, and high frequency response light source(s) operating in flash illumination mode in synchronization with the image sensor. As a result, unnecessary exposure of illumination light to a patient eye is minimized while the illumination light can span a wide enough coverage range with desired intensity and spectral distribution to cover the desired angular field of view and spectral range on a retina.

A prism array light redistribution apparatus for an eye imaging system including light transmitting fibers, light receiving fibers, and a micro prism array optically coupled to bridge the light transmitting fibers and the light receiving fibers. The array may be further configured to receive light having a bell-shaped angular distribution from the light transmitting fibers and refract the received light to enter the light receiving fibers such that a square-shaped angular distribution of light emits from a light emitting end of the light receiving fibers.

Prism array and apparatus for eye-imaging system

An eye-imaging apparatus and system is described including arrayed optical fibers having a high numerical aperture and circular fiber array ends arranged at skewed angles relative to the optical axis of the imaging path. Circular fiber array ends are arranged to emit the illumination light into an eye at a skewed angle and a light intensity distribution converter along the illumination path to convert a bell-shaped distribution into a top-hat distribution. As a result, illumination uniformity on the retina of the eye is improved.

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Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

John Allison