Tom N Cornsweet

Title: Innovations by Tom N Cornsweet

Introduction

Tom N Cornsweet is a notable inventor based in Irvine, CA (US). He has made significant contributions to the field of medical technology, particularly in the area of fitness and eye tracking systems. With a total of 6 patents, his work has advanced the understanding and measurement of physical impairment and eye movement.

Latest Patents

One of his latest inventions is the Fitness Impairment Tester. This device implements a self-administered screening test to determine whether a subject is physically impaired. The tester is fully automated and responds to the entering of a subject's personal identification on a keypad. By superposing two different colored lights as viewed through an eyepiece, the subject aligns their pupil on the optical axis of pupil imaging optics. This focuses an image of the subject's pupil on an image plane. The tester automatically recognizes this condition and audibly signals the subject that the test is about to begin. Light stimuli are provided to cause the pupil to change size and the eye to move. Pupil diameter measurements are made in response to on-axis light stimuli. Eye tracking of the subject's eye in response to moving light stimuli provides a measure of eye movements. The data acquired by measuring pupil diameter and saccadic movements of the subject's eye as a function of time are compared with baseline data stored in a database. An output indicative of a deviation from the baseline data is then provided.

Another significant invention is the Eye Tracking Method and Apparatus. This improved eye tracking system is capable of accurately measuring fast eye movements. It is controlled by a microprocessor and software to rapidly track a subject's eye movements. The hardware for the electro-optical tracking system includes a quadrant detector that detects the relative direction of movement of the subject's eye. The output of the quadrant detector is processed by the microprocessor under the control of three software subsystems. The first subsystem is the servo tracking software, which controls positioning motors that rapidly move a mirror mechanism. This mechanism reflects light that forms an image of the subject's eye on the quadrant detector. The second subsystem is the pupil recognition software, which recognizes that an image of a pupil is present. The third subsystem is the blink detection software, which recognizes the presence of a blink and disables the servo tracking subsystem. These three software subsystems work together to ensure accurate tracking of a subject's eye movements.

Career Highlights