Method and apparatus for illuminating and imaging eyes through eyeglasses
AssigneeSensar, Inc.
InventorsJ. Michael Rozmus, Marcos Salganicoff
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A reliable method of illuminating and imaging an eye through eyeglasses uses a monochromatic light source with the smallest possible source area, a camera with an imager that exhibits minimal blooming, and a narrow-bandwidth optical bandpass filter to filter out most of the ambient illumination while passing most of the light from the system's own illuminator. In an alternative embodiment, a partially-transparent mirror is used to make the light source appear to be on the optical axis of the camera as viewed from the subject's eye.
Claims18
An apparatus for obtaining an image of an object that is positioned behind a light-transmissive structure which structure has reflections from a light source that could obscure a portion of the object comprising:
- a. an imager that exhibits minimal blooming positioned so that the object is within the imager's field of view;
- and
- b. a light source, having a source area smaller than twice a largest area obscured by a specular reflection that can be tolerated in the image of the object, positioned to direct a beam to the object along a first line that intersects a second line from the imager to the object at an acute angle.
A method for obtaining an image of a human eye comprising:
- a. positioning an imager that exhibits minimal blooming such that the eye is in the imager's field of view;
- b. directing a light beam from a light source, having a source area smaller than twice a largest area obscured by a specular reflection that can be tolerated in the image of the eye, to the eye along a first line that intersects a second line from the imager to the eye at an acuate angle;
- and
- c. recording an image of the eye using the imager.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.