Optical coherence tomography with dynamic focus sweeping and windowed averaging
AssigneeTopcon Corporation
InventorsRichard F. Spaide, Charles A. Reisman, Zhenguo Wang, Kinpui Chan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
During scan capture with an OCT imaging system, the focal plane position can be simultaneously shifted over at least a portion of an image range. As a result, a plurality of image frames respectively corresponding to various focal plane positions is acquired. The image frames can be combined to generate a composite image having suitable resolution throughout the image range, including regions associated with weak-intensity or low-reflectance features. Further, windowed averaging can be performed prior to generation of the composite image so that the composite image incorporates weights given to image data in focus.
Claims25
An optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system, comprising:
- an optical sub-system for capturing OCT scan data of a subject, the optical sub-system comprising an objective lens for transmitting a scanning beam from a light source to the subject, the objective lens being configurable such that a focal plane position relative to the subject is adjustable;
- and
- a control apparatus for controlling the capturing of OCT scan data by the optical sub-system, for configuring the objective lens to adjust the focal plane position relative to the subject, and for processing the OCT scan data to generate at least one OCT image such that for each focal plane position of a plurality of focal plane positions, the OCT scan data comprises one or more two-dimensional scan captures.
A method of focus sweeping with an OCT imaging system, comprising:
- scanning, by the OCT imaging system, a subject to acquire a plurality of two-dimensional scan captures;
- and
- adjusting a focal plane position within the subject to a plurality of focal plane positions within an image range of the OCT imaging system,
- wherein the adjusting of the focal plane position occurs simultaneously with the scanning of the subject so that, for each focal plane position, of the plurality of focal plane positions, one or more scan captures are acquired.
An OCT imaging system, comprising:
- an optical sub-system for capturing OCT scan data of a subject, wherein the OCT scan data comprises a plurality of scan captures respectively associated with a plurality of focal plane positions;
- and
- an image processor for converting the OCT scan data to a plurality of OCT images, for performing a windowed average over the plurality of OCT images based on the plurality of focal plane positions, and for outputting a composite image based on the windowed average.
A method for generating a composite image of a subject from OCT scan data, comprising:
- acquiring, by an OCT imaging system, a plurality of image frames respectively associated with a plurality of focal plane positions;
- performing windowed averaging on the plurality of image frames, wherein the windowed averaging weights the plurality of image frames based on respective focal plane positions;
- and
- generating the composite image from a result of the windowed averaging.
A method for OCT imaging, comprising:
- scanning, by an OCT imaging system, a subject to acquire a plurality image frames;
- controlling the OCT imaging system during the scanning to change a focal plane position within the subject successively through a set of focal plane positions within an image range of the OCT imaging system, wherein the controlling is simultaneous with the scanning such that at least one image frame is acquired at each focal plane position of the set of focal plane positions;
- weighting respective image frames, of the plurality of image frames, with respective weighting images generated based on respective focal plane positions at which the respective image frames are acquired;
- generating a composite image based on the plurality of image frames, as weighted, and the respective weighting images;
- and
- outputting the composite image for display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.