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:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 19, 1998
Richard B Rosse, Falls Church, VA (US);
Surendra K Johri, Gaithersburg, MD (US);
Stephen I Deutsch, Silver Spring, MD (US);
Barbara L Schwartz, Washington, DC (US);
BioProbes, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD (US);
Abstract
An easily administered, non-invasive, sensitive and specific system and method for screening persons for dementia, particularly dementia of the Alzheimer's type, is provided. The system and method include means for irradiating the eye of a person with light, preferably light solely within the infrared spectrum, and means for generating a signal responsive to the amount of light reflected from the eye over a period of time. This signal is indicative of changes in the pupil's size over time. The system and method further include means for performing a Fourier transform upon this signal to provide a value indicative of the strength of this signal's frequency components. This value then is compared against a predetermined threshold value and, if this threshold value is exceeded, a higher probability is assigned to the person having dementia, particularly dementia of the Alzheimer's type.