Retina imaging method and device, and retina and optic nerve function evaluation system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11744461-B2
Application number	US-202016801604-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2020
Priority date	May 21, 2019
Publication date	Sep 5, 2023
Grant date	Sep 5, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a retina imaging method in which a light from a light source into two lights is dispersed, at least one eyeground image of the eyeball at a first magnification is obtained by adjusting the paths of the two lights incident on the eyeball, and a plurality of DIC images are obtained at a second magnification higher than the first magnification with respect to the retina of the entirety of the obtained at least one eyeground image by adjusting the paths of the two lights incident on the eyeball.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A retina imaging device comprising:
a light irradiation unit for irradiating two dispersed lights;
a magnification adjustment unit for adjusting the paths of the two lights and adjusting a magnification of an image obtained from the two lights incident on the eyeball, the magnification adjustment unit comprising:
a first lens on which the two dispersed lights are incident
a second lens on which the two lights that have passed through the first lens are incident; and
a third lens on which the two light that have passed through the second lens are incident, wherein the magnification of the image is defined according to a movement of the third lens such that a first movement of the third lens provides a first magnification and a second movement of the third lens provides a second magnification;

a light compensation unit for receiving lights reflected from the eyeball and compensating for aberrations of lights generated in the eyeball; and
a light processing unit comprising a charge-coupled device (CCD) that converts the compensated reflected lights into an electrical signal, the light processing unit configured for obtaining differential interference contrast (DIC) images by converting the electrical signal of the compensated reflected lights into a digital signal and image-processing the digital signal,
wherein the retina imaging device is configured to obtain at least one eyeground image at the first magnification, and obtain a plurality of DIC images at the second magnification higher than the first magnification with respect to the retina of the entirety of the obtained at least one eyeground image.

2. The retina imaging device of claim 1 , wherein:
the magnification adjustment unit further includes:
a fixed frame to which the first lens and the second lens are fixed; and
an adjustment frame to which the third lens is fixed and whose position is moved with respect to the fixed frame.

3. The retina imaging device of claim 2 , wherein:
the position of the third lens at the first magnification is farther from the eye than the position of the third lens at the second magnification.

4. The retina imaging device of claim 3 , wherein:
at the first magnification, a region corresponding to the at least one eyeground image is specified by the two lights that have passed through the third lens and the lens of the eyeball, and
at the second magnification, a specific point of the region corresponding to the at least one eyeground image obtained by the two lights that have passed through the third lens and the lens of the eyeball is specified.

5. The retina imaging device of claim 1 , wherein:
the light irradiation unit includes
a differential interference contrast (DIC) prism for dispersing a light to produce the two dispersed lights.

6. The retina imaging device of claim 5 , wherein:
the two lights reflected from the eyeball are combined into one light in the DIC prism through the magnification adjustment unit and incident on the light compensation unit, and
wherein the light compensation unit includes
a wavefront sensor for detecting aberrations of the incident lights and
a variable mirror which is adjusted by the wavefront sensor for compensating for the aberrations of the incident lights.

Assignees

• Korea Inst Sci & Tech
• Seoul Nat Univ Hospital
• Univ Inha Res & Business Found

Inventors

• Kim Jae Hun
• Kim Dae Yu
• Kim Seok Hwan
• Cho Youngho
• Park Byeongho
• Kim Hyo-Suk
• Park Subeen
• Lee Kyoung Min

Classifications

• A61B3/14 Primary

  Arrangements specially adapted for eye photography · CPC title

• G02B21/0032

  Optical details of illumination, e.g. light-sources, pinholes, beam splitters, slits, fibers (G02B21/0036 - G02B21/008; means for illumination of specimens in general G02B21/06) · CPC title

• G02B21/365

  Control or image processing arrangements for digital or video microscopes (G02B21/361, G02B21/362 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• G06T2207/30041

  Eye; Retina; Ophthalmic · CPC title