Apparatus and method for optical measurements
AssigneeOttawa Health Research Institute
InventorsRejean Munger, Neil Lagali
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed are an apparatus and method for separately detecting and measuring specularly reflected light and diffusely reflected light following illumination of an eye by light. The apparatus and method of the present invention facilitates substantial separation of the diffusely reflected light from light specularly reflected from the eye after passing through one or more elements of the eye, for example, the cornea, lens, retinal vasculature, the nerve fibre layer and/or the photoreceptors. The collection of these separate streams of independent optical signals to appropriate detection systems provides specificity and accuracy in determination of optical properties of one or more elements of the eye.
Claims21
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- (a) an illumination system comprising a light source for illuminating one or more elements of an eye of a subject;
- (b) an optical separation means for separating light specularly reflected from one or more component of said eye from diffusely reflected light returned from said eye;
- (c) a detection system comprising:
- (i) one or more detectors;
- and
- (ii) transmission means for collecting and separately transmitting the separated specularly reflected light and the diffusely reflected light to said one or more detector, and
- (d) an eye/instrument interface for controlling light delivery from said illumination system to said eye and for capturing and transmitting light exiting the eye to said detection system.
The optical apparatus according to 1, wherein the detection system comprises more than one detector.
A method for monitoring light remitted from an eye of a subject comprising the steps of:
- (a) illuminating one or more element of said eye with a light source;
- (b) transmitting light specularly reflected from said eye to a detection system via an optical separation means;
- and
- (c) separately transmitting diffusely reflected light remitted from said eye to said detection system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.