Apparatus and method for accommodative stimulation of an eye and simultaneous ipsilateral accommodative imaging

A method comprising the steps of:

• a stimulating an eye to undergo at least one reversible accommodative transition from any first state of accommodation to any second state of accommodation by projecting a light from a light source on an illuminating segment of a projection platform that has an axis of projection and that is attached to a motorized carriage, through at least one member of a set of exchangeable target-image-forming masks on an internal segment of said projection platform, thereafter passing said light through a system of adjustable lenses for correcting any refractive error of said eye onto a system of Badal optics having a Badal optical axis coincident with said axis of projection, said Badal optical axis also being substantially perpendicular to a visual axis of said eye, said light emerging from said system of Badal optics and striking a half-silvered mirror lying in a plane forming an angle of about 45 degrees with said axis of projection and said visual axis, thereby forming an adjustable accommodative target;
• and,
• b. adjusting said adjustable accommodative target by moving said motorized carriage along an axis of travel that is parallel to said axis of projection, between any two points within the limits of a parallel linear scale, at a rate that is substantially less than a minimum response time for full accommodation in a mammalian eye, said linear scale being calibrated in diopters of accommodative stimulus provided by said projection platform at each position of said projection platform along said axis of travel, said axis of travel and said linear scale being substantially perpendicular to said visual axis of said eye;
• and,
• c. simultaneously acquiring imaging information about said eye by simultaneously exposing said eye to electromagnetic waves and simultaneously imaging said eye during said least one reversible accommodative transition from any first state of accommodation to any second state of accommodation,
• wherein said step of simultaneously exposing comprises simultaneously illuminating said eye using a slit beam of a slit lamp projection lamp and said step of simultaneously imaging comprises simultaneously videographing said eye using a Scheimpflug videography device.