Massie Research Laboratories, Inc.

Clarity Medical Systems, Inc.

The United States of America As Represented by the United States

Research Development Foundation

Phoenix Research Laboratories

Norbert A Massie

Wei Su

Bruce W Maxfield

Michael Shao

Yale Oster

An apparatus for illuminating and imaging the retina of an eye of a patient utilizes an LED as source of illumination.

Apparatus and method for illuminating and imaging the retina of an eye of a patient

Imaging an eye of an animal can include injecting a ring of light through an outer portion of an entrance pupil of the eye of the animal onto a back interior portion of the eye. Light reflected off of the back interior portion of the eye and through an exit pupil effectively located at the entrance pupil within the ring of light can be collected. A diameter of the exit pupil at the entrance pupil can be less than an inner diameter of the ring of light, and a difference between an outer diameter of the ring and the inner diameter of the ring can be at least twenty percent of a diameter of the eye. The collected light reflected off of the back interior portion of the eye can be focused to thereby form an image of the back interior portion of the eye.

Method and apparatus for imaging an eye of a small animal

A digital camera that combines the functions of the retinal camera and/or corneal camera into one, single, small, easy to use instrument includes features such as image and laser spot stabilization, an LED light source, stereo corneal imaging, polarizing reflection reduction, visual function testing, and so on.

Apparatus and method for illuminating and viewing the anterior segment of an eye of a patient

A digital camera that combines the functions of the retinal camera and corneal camera into one, single, small, easy to use instrument is used to perform laser treatment therapy on a patient.

Digital eye camera

A digital camera that combines the functions of the retinal camera and corneal camera into one, single, small, easy to use instrument. The single camera can acquire digital images of a retinal region of an eye, and digital images of a corneal region of the eye. The camera includes a first combination of optical elements for making said retinal digital images, and a second combination of optical elements for making said corneal digital images. In a preferred embodiment, a portion of these elements are shared elements including a first objective element of an objective lens combination, a digital image sensor and at least one eyepiece for viewing either the retina or the cornea. Also, preferably, the retinal combination also includes a first changeable element of said objective lens system for focusing, in combination with said first objective element, portions or all of said retinal region at or approximately at a common image plane. Also, preferably, the retinal combination also includes a retinal illuminating light source, an aperture within said frame and positioned within said first combination to form an effective retinal aperture located at or approximately at the lens of the eye defining an effective retinal aperture position, an infrared camera for determining eye position, and an aperture adjustment mechanism for adjusting the effective retinal aperture based on position signals from said infrared camera. Also, preferably, the cornea combination of elements includes a second changeable element of said objective lens system for focusing, in combination with said first objective element, portions or all of said cornea region at or approximately at a common image plane.

A digital camera that combines the functions of the retinal camera and corneal camera into one, single, small, easy to use instrument. The single camera can acquire digital images of a retinal region of an eye, and digital images of a corneal region of the eye. The camera includes a first combination of optical elements for making said retinal digital images, and a second combination of optical elements for making said corneal digital images. A portion of these elements are shared elements including a first objective element of an objective lens combination, a digital image sensor and at least one eyepiece for viewing either the retina or the cornea. The retinal combination also includes a first changeable element of said objective lens system for focusing, in combination with said first objective element, portions or all of said retinal region at or approximately at a common image plane. The retinal combination also includes a retinal illuminating light source, an aperture within said frame and positioned within said first combination to form an effective retinal aperture located at or approximately at the lens of the eye defining an effective retinal aperture position, an infrared camera for determining eye position, and an aperture adjustment mechanism for adjusting the effective retinal aperture based on position signals from said infrared camera. The cornea combination of elements includes a second changeable element of said objective lens system for focusing, in combination with said first objective element, portions or all of said cornea region at or approximately at a common image plane.

A beam of acoustic energy comprising acoustic radiation and the associated acoustic streaming of an ultrasonic beam is used to indent or applanate (flatten) the eye. These two effects produce acoustic pressure on the eye which partially overcomes the IPO of the eye. A concurrent determination of acoustic pressure and the distortion of the eye allows one to determine the IOP.

Non-contact tonometer

An eye imaging system having a portable image capture unit having a circular light guide positioned adjacent to and behind a corneal contact lens for controlling directing light over a wide field to the retina of an eye and provide more light towards the center of the eye.

Eye imaging unit having a circular light guide

A non-contact tonometer is described for measuring the intraocular pressure (IOP) of the eye. An ultrasonic power transducer directs an ultrasonic beam onto the eye and the force generated by the radiation pressure causes indentation or applanation which is detected with an ultrasonic or optical detector. An optical system provides an image of the eye with appropriate alignment beams injected through a beam splitter for positioning the device with respect to the eye. An additional ultrasonic beam may be used to measure the range to the eye. Another optical detector, is utilized to measure applanation or indentation; alternatively, an additional ultrasonic transducer and beam could be used. Operation of the device may be through continuous wave or pulsed excitation of the ultrasound. Feed-back control of the ultrasound power level is possible using an additional ultrasonic transducer for measuring the power levels to augment measurement accuracy.

In multi-telescope arrays that comprise multiple telescopes, a beam-combining module, and flat mirrors for directing light beams from the multiple telescopes to the beam combining module, a laser metrology system is used for monitoring various pathlengths along a beam path where deviations are likely. Some pathlengths are defined simply by a pair of retroreflectors or reflectors at both ends. Lengths between pairs of retroreflectors are measured and monitored by laser interferometers. One critical pathlength deviation is related to the displacement of the flat mirror. A reference frame is set up relative to the beam-combining module to form and define the coordinate system within which the positions of the flat mirrors are measured and monitored. In the preferred embodiment, a pair of retroreflectors along the optical axis of the beam-combining module defines a reference frame. A triangle is formed by the reference frame as the base and another retroreflector at the flat mirror as the vertex. The triangle is used to monitor the position of the flat mirror. A beam's pathlength is dynamically corrected in response to the monitored deviations.

Laser metrology for coherent multi-telescope arrays

A large effective-aperture, low-cost optical telescope with diffraction-limited resolution enables ground-based observation of near-earth space objects. The telescope has a non-redundant, thinned-aperture array in a center-mount, single-structure space frame. It employs speckle interferometric imaging to achieve diffraction-limited resolution. The signal-to-noise ratio problem is mitigated by moving the wavelength of operation to the near-IR, and the image is sensed by a Silicon CCD. The steerable, single-structure array presents a constant pupil. The center-mount, radar-like mount enables low-earth orbit space objects to be tracked as well as increases stiffness of the space frame. In the preferred embodiment, the array has elemental telescopes with subaperture of 2.1 m in a circle-of-nine configuration. The telescope array has an effective aperture of 12 m which provides a diffraction-limited resolution of 0.02 arc seconds. Pathlength matching of the telescope array is maintained by an electro-optical system employing laser metrology. Speckle imaging relaxes pathlength matching tolerance by one order of magnitude as compared to phased arrays. Many features of the telescope contribute to substantial reduction in costs. These include eliminating the conventional protective dome and reducing on-site construction activites. The cost of the telescope scales with the first power of the aperture rather than its third power as in conventional telescopes.

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Norbert A Massie