Ocular Fundus Camera System and Methodology

An ocular fundus camera system in operative condition comprising

• light-source structure for illuminating, along an elongate, illumination path, the fundus in a subject's eye,
• an elongate, main optical path having upstream and downstream ends and a long axis, extending downstream from the subject's eye, and carrying, downstream along its length, both light that acts as if the pupil were its source, and light reflected from, and carrying an image of, the fundus,
• an image-detecting sensor centered on the main path's long axis adjacent the latter's downstream end, disposed for optical communication with light carried in said main path,
• an aperture also centered on the main path's long axis, operatively associated with, and stationary with respect to, said sensor at a location which is upstream along the main path from the sensor, positioned there to communicate to the sensor light carried in the main path,
• discriminatory, light-content shifting structure disposed centrally on said main path's long axis upstream therealong relative to said aperture, operable selectively for producing, within that portion of the main path which is disposed intermediate the shifting structure and the aperture, relative trans-axial displacement-shifting solely of any non-collimated light carried in that portion of the main path which is disposed immediately upstream from the shifting structure, and
• structure selectively placeable across said illumination path for introducing, effectively, into light reflected from the fundus, edge-portion-containing optical contrast imagery having at least one, contrast edge portion which lies at an angle relative to the direction of trans-axial shifting producible by said shifting structure, and whose spatial disposition in the fundus-reflection light is independent of eye movement.

An ocular fundus, image-focusing camera methodology comprising

• illuminating the fundus in a subject's eye along an elongate illumination path,
• by said illuminating, creating a light reflection from the fundus directed therefrom outwardly through the pupil in a flow of reflection light which progresses downstream from the eye along an elongate main optical path having a long axis,
• discriminatorily, and in a relative trans-axial displacement manner at a location along the main optical path which is disposed downstream from the eye, shifting solely any non-collimated light which is contained in the flow of created reflection light,
• detecting any such shifting, and
• employing any detected shifting in a manner designed to minimize the presence of non-collimated light in the reflection-light flow.