Multi-spectral polarimetric variable optical device and imager
OwnerIbrahim Abdulhaliminventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system is described that combines spectropolarimetry with scatterometry. The system uses an annular mirror and liquid crystal devices to control the angle of the incident light cone, the polarization and wavelength, an imaging setup and one or more video cameras so that spectroscopic-polarimetric-scatterometric images can be grabbed rapidly. The system is also designed to incorporate additional imaging modes such as interference, phase contrast, fluorescence and Raman spectropolarimetric imaging.
Claims15
A method of eye diagnostics, eye tissue diagnostics, pathological sample analysis, eye retina diagnostics, skin, cervical or thyroid cancer diagnostics, skin tissue diagnostics or diagnostics of skin dermatological conditions of a patient comprising:
- 1) acquiring and recording spectral and polarimetric images of eye, eye retina or tissue, skin or skin tissue, cervix, or thyroid gland of the patient with a multi-spectral polarimetric imaging system;
- 2) reviewing the acquired images to determine a potentially damaged, tumour or diseased area of the eye or eye retina, skin or skin tissue, cervix, or thyroid gland, or skin dermatological conditions of the patient, and to choose suitable parameters that correspond to the retina oxygen map or indicate retina blood vessels conditions, eye cataract, skin, cervix or thyroid gland cancer or skin dermatological conditions;
- 3) processing spectroscopic and polarimetric parameters in an external memory;
- and
- 4) diagnosing the type and development stage of the disease or condition, or accentuating minute characteristics of the dermatological conditions, based on the characterising parameters of the tissue, retina or sample and on the processed spectroscopic and polarimetric parameters;
- wherein said multi-spectral polarimetric imaging system comprises:
- (a) a light source with an aperture stop in front of the light source;
- (b) a liquid crystal aperture tuning (LCTA) installed in front of the aperture stop;
- (c) a first lens placed in front of the LCTA and a polariser installed in front of the first lens;
- (d) one of a liquid crystal tunable filter (LCTF) with a field stop in front of the LCTF, or a liquid crystal spectral modulation (LCSM), installed in front of the polariser;
- (e) a first liquid crystal polarisation controller (LCPC) installed in front of the field stop and a second lens placed in front of the first LCPC;
- (f) an annular mirror oriented at 45 degrees to the light from the light source that passes through elements (a) to (e);
- (g) a light trap designed to absorb light from the light source that passes through an open centre of the annular mirror;
- (h) an objective lens configured to receive and focus the light reflected by the annular mirror;
- (i) a window through which the light focused by the objective lens is capable of passing;
- (j) a sample chamber for containing a sample on which the objective lens is configured to focus the light;
- (k) a second LCPC designed to receive the light reflected by or scattered from the surface of the sample and passing through the window, the objective lens, and the open centre of the annular mirror;
- (l) a third lens placed in front of the second LCPC;
- (m) beam splitters configured to split the beam into more than one channel;
- (n) analysers or polarisation masks in each of said channels oriented differently from each other;
- and
- (o) at least one digital camera in one of said channels onto which the third lens focuses the light reflected or scattered from the surface of the sample, through the analyser or the analyser mask, said camera is capable of zooming to vary magnification, and each analyser or analyser mask in front of each camera has different orientation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.