Pneumatic displacement mechanism for patient controlled placement and removal of an optical device in an imaging bore environment

A method of placing an optical device onto a patient's eyes and removing the optical device from the patient's eyes when the patient is located in a patient bore of a medical imaging system having a confined head space, comprising:

• providing a pneumatic device;
• providing a resilient element attached between an inner surface of the patient bore and the optical device wherein the resilient element extends through the pneumatic device and wherein the optical device is spaced apart from the patient's eyes in a first position;
• further including inflating a second air bladder located under the patient's head to move the patient's eyes toward the optical device when the second air bladder is inflated;
• inflating the pneumatic device to move the optical device to a second position wherein the optical device is placed on the patient's eyes and wherein inflating the pneumatic device extends the resilient element and biases the resilient element to return to the first position;
• guiding the resilient element and optical device in a longitudinal direction corresponding to a longitudinal axis of the imaging system;
• and
• venting air from the pneumatic device to return the optical device to the first position.