The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 12, 1991
Filed:
Feb. 09, 1989
Kent P Pflibsen, Tuscon, AZ (US);
Yakov Reznichenko, Brookline, MA (US);
Eye Research Institute of Retina Foundation, Boston, MA (US);
Abstract
An instrument for imaging the vitreous of an eye wherein first and second windows in the iris plane accommodate a slit illumination or observation beam, and the two beams are synchronously scanned. Both beams pass through a common objective optical system, including an aspheric ophthalmic lens, and the observation beam is descanned by a mirror and spatially filtered by an observation slit conjugate to the slit which forms the illumination beam. Lateral position or width adjustment of a slit varies the axial extent or position of the focal region, to produce an image free of retinal reflection. Slit width may be increased to simulataneously image with good resolution and contrast all planes within a broad range of depths. In one binocular embodiment, the observation and illumination paths are alternately interchanged to produce a pair of stereo images formed along identical, but reversed, optical paths with a single set of optics. In a different embodiment, a common scanning element illuminates the vitreous, which is viewed along symmetrical left and right observation imaging paths. Different means of synchronous scanning and of forming a binocular image are shown. A descanned time varying line image may be converted to an electrical image signal, or may be optically rescanned to expose a photographic plate or form a directly viewable image.