Kowa Company Limited

Naoki Kobayashi

Toshiaki Nakagawa

Koji Kobayashi

Masaharu Mizuochi

The tomographic image capturing device of the present invention is configured to: split light from a light source () into measurement light and reference light; cause the measurement light and the reference light to be incident to an object (E) and a reference object (), respectively; and capture tomographic images of the object (E) on the basis of interference light generated by superposition of the measurement light reflected from the object (E) and the reference light reflected from the reference object (). The tomographic image capturing device has a first image capturing mode and a second image capturing mode. The first and second image capturing modes are each a mode in which the measurement light is two-dimensionally scanned to be incident to the object (E) and the tomographic images of the object (E) are captured. The two-dimensional scans in the second image capturing mode require a shorter time than that required for the two-dimensional scans in the first image capturing mode. The capturing of the tomographic images in the first image capturing mode is performed after performing adjustment of an image capturing condition necessary for capturing the tomographic images in the first image capturing mode. The adjustment is based on the tomographic images captured in the second image capturing mode.

Tomographic image capturing device

The tomographic image capturing device of the present invention includes a tomographic image capturing means that scans measurement light on a subject's eye fundus (E) to capture tomographic images of the subject's eye fundus and an image processing means that compresses a picture of the captured tomographic images in a scan direction to generate a new tomographic picture. The tomographic image capturing means performs scan at a second scan pitch (P) narrower than a first scan pitch (P) to capture the tomographic images of the subject's eye fundus. The image processing means compresses the picture (B) of the tomographic images captured at the second scan pitch (P) in the scan direction to generate the new tomographic picture (B). The measurement width in the scan direction of the new tomographic picture (B) is a width of a picture corresponding to a measurement width in the scan direction of a tomographic picture (Bn (n=1 to 10)) obtained by scan at the first scan pitch (P).

The tomographic image capturing device of the present invention comprises a display means () configured to: split light from a light source () into measurement light and reference light and cause the measurement light and the reference light to be incident to an object (E) and a reference object (), respectively; capture tomographic images of the object (E) on the basis of interference light generated by superposition of the measurement light reflected from the object (E) and the reference light reflected from the reference object (); and display tomographic pictures of the object generated on the basis of the captured tomographic images. The tomographic image capturing device has a first image capturing mode and a second image capturing mode. The first image capturing mode is a mode in which the measurement light is two-dimensionally scanned by raster scan to be incident to the object (E) and the tomographic images of the object (E) are captured. The second image capturing mode is a mode in which the measurement light is two-dimensionally scanned by raster scan to be incident to the object (E) and the tomographic images of the object (E) are captured. The raster scan in the second image capturing mode is thinned from the raster scan in the first image capturing mode. The display means () is configured to be switchable between a first display mode and a second display mode. The first display mode is a mode in which a plurality of tomographic pictures including a region of interest of the object (E) is selected from among the tomographic pictures generated on the basis of the tomographic images captured in the second image capturing mode and only the selected plurality of tomographic pictures is displayed. The second display mode is a mode in which all of the tomographic pictures generated on the basis of the tomographic images captured in the second image capturing mode are in turn displayed. The capturing of the tomographic images in the first image capturing mode is performed after separately performing a first adjustment operation and a second adjustment operation for adjustment of an image capturing condition necessary for capturing the tomographic images in the first image capturing mode. The first adjustment operation is based on the tomographic pictures displayed in the first display mode. The second adjustment operation is based on the tomographic pictures displayed in the second display mode.

An optical object measurement apparatus includes a light source for generating a low-coherent light beam, which is swept via an array of pinholes on a Nipkow disk that rotates about an axis. A beam splitter splits the swept light beam into a probe light beam toward an object to be measured and a reference light beam toward a reference optical path. The probe light beam from the object and the reference light that has traveled along the reference optical path are combined in the beam splitter to produce interference light. A two-dimensional image-capturing device detects the interference light and produces a video signal to provide reflection intensity information of the interior of the object. This allows an interference optical system to be readily realized and tomographic images of an object to be observed at high levels of resolution and contrast.

Growing community of inventors

Higashimurayama, Japan

Naoki Kobayashi