Structured illumination ophthalmoscope

An ophthalmoscope (100) for non-invasive observations of a fundus, the ophthalmoscope (100) comprising:

• a light source (10;
• 11;
• 12) configured to emit illumination light;
• a pattern generation system (20;
• 22;
• 24) arranged in the optical path of the illumination light, said pattern generation system (20;
• 22;
• 24) configured to generate an illumination pattern of the illumination light;
• at least one objective (40) arranged and configured to illuminate the retinal region of an eye (52) by projecting the illumination pattern onto the retinal region of the eye (52);
• an image capturing system (70) configured to detect at least one of at least a portion of fluorescent light emitted from the retinal region of the eye (52) and at least a portion of illumination light reflected from the retinal region of the eye (52), thereby capturing a series of images of the retinal region of the eye (52) at a plurality of different relative positions of the retinal region of the eye (52) with respect to the illumination pattern projected onto the retinal region of the eye (52), wherein between the capturing of at least two images of the series the relative position of the retinal region of the eye (52) with respect to the illumination pattern projected onto the retinal region of the eye (52) is shifted in a non-controlled manner;
• and
• a data processing system configured to process data obtained from the series of captured images, thereby producing a sub-resolution image of the retinal region of the eye (52).

A computer implemented method for generating sub-resolution images of a fundus based on a series of images of the retinal region of the eye (52) obtained by an ophthalmoscope (100), wherein the series of images is obtained by projecting an illumination pattern of illumination light onto the retinal region of the eye (52), thereby illuminating the retinal region of the eye 52 and at least one of detecting at least a portion of fluorescent light emitted from the retinal region of the eye (52) and detecting at least a portion of illumination light reflected from the retinal region of the eye (52), thereby capturing a series of images at a plurality of different relative positions of the retinal region of the eye (52) with respect to the illumination pattern projected onto the retinal region of the eye (52), wherein between the capturing of at least two images of the series the relative position of the retinal region of the eye (52) with respect to the illumination pattern projected onto the retinal region of the eye (52) is shifted in a non-controlled manner, said method comprising:

• receiving the series of images of the retinal region of the eye (52);
• for each received image determining the non-controlled shift of the relative position of the retinal region of the eye (52) with respect to the illumination pattern projected onto the retinal region of the eye (52);
• a-posteriori shifting of each received image to reverse the corresponding non-controlled shift of the retinal region of the eye (52) with respect to the projected illumination pattern, thereby obtaining a corresponding shifted image;
• and
• processing the shifted images to extract a sub-resolution image.