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:
Aug. 07, 2007
Filed:
Dec. 23, 2003
Phuoc K. Nguyen, Winter Springs, FL (US);
Haizhang LI, Orlando, FL (US);
Antonio Rosales, Winter Springs, FL (US);
Phuoc K. Nguyen, Winter Springs, FL (US);
Haizhang Li, Orlando, FL (US);
Antonio Rosales, Winter Springs, FL (US);
Alcon RefractiveHorizons, Inc., Fort Worth, TX (US);
Abstract
A method and system for patient optical fixation are disclosed. One embodiment of the system comprises: a light source operable to provide a fixation light beam; a filter optically coupled to the light source and operable to attenuate the fixation light beam to provide an apodized light beam, wherein the apodized light beam comprises a more attenuated portion and a less attenuated portion; and a viewer, operable to receive a reflected fine align beam and a reflected coarse align beam from a fixation target. The light source can be, for example, a laser, a light emitting diode or a laser diode. The filter can be a neutral density ('ND') filter, comprising: an aperture through which a first portion of the fixation light beam can pass unattenuated by the ND filter to form the less attenuated portion of the apodized light beam; and a filter region for attenuating a second portion of the fixation light beam to form the more attenuated portion of the apodized light beam. This embodiment of the system of the present invention can further comprise a set of focusing lenses operable to receive and focus the more attenuated portion of the apodized light beam to provide a patient coarse align light beam to aid a patient in achieving fixation on the less attenuated portion of the apodized light beam. The focusing lenses can be configured to provide an intermittent blinking patient coarse align light beam. The fixation target can be a human eye and the selected region can be the cornea of a human eye.