Claims
- 1. An apparatus for measuring intraocular pressure of an eye, said apparatus comprising:
a contact lens including an inner surface contoured to a surface portion of the eye for engaging the surface portion; and a sensor disposed in said inner surface of said contact lens, said sensor comprising:
a contact surface for making contact with the surface portion of the eye, said contact surface including an outer non-compliant region and an inner compliant region fabricated as an impedance element that varies in impedance as said inner compliant region changes shape; and a region of conductive material electrically coupled to said impedance element of said compliant region and responsive to an external signal for energizing said impedance element so that the intraocular pressure may be determined.
- 2-34. (Canceled)
- 35. A tonographic sensor for measuring the intraocular pressure of an eye, said sensor comprising:
a contact surface for making contact with a surface portion of the eye, said surface including an outer non-compliant region and an inner compliant region fabricated as an impedance element that varies in impedance as said inner compliant region changes shape; and a region of conductive material electrically coupled to said impedance element of said compliant region and responsive to an external signal for-energizing said impedance element so that the intraocular pressure may be determined.
- 36. The sensor of claim 35 wherein said sensor is comprised of silicon material.
- 37. The sensor of claim 35 wherein said sensor is comprised of a polymeric material.
- 38. The sensor of claim 37 wherein said sensor comprises at least two layers of polymeric film bonded together.
- 39. The sensor of claim 35 wherein said compliant region comprises a diaphragm that functions as one plate of a capacitive element, said diaphragm being separated by a dielectric region from another plate of said capacitive element, said diaphragm flexing closer to said other plate as said surface is pressed against the surface portion of the eye to change the capacitance of said capacitive element in proportion to the intraocular pressure of the eye.
- 40. The sensor of claim 39 wherein said dielectric region comprises air.
- 41. The sensor of claim 39 wherein said dielectric region comprises hydrogel.
- 42. The sensor of claim 39 wherein said region of conductive material comprises an inductor coil that is electrically coupled to said capacitive element to form a resonant circuit, the external signal comprising an electromagnetic signal that varies in frequency to cause said resonant circuit to be energized and resonate at a frequency in proportion to the capacitance of said capacitive element so that the intraocular pressure may be determined.
- 43. The sensor of claim 42 wherein said inductor coil is fabricated in said non-compliant region.
- 44. The sensor of claim 42 wherein said inductor coil is fabricated on said inner compliant region.
- 45. The sensor of claim 44 further comprising a second inductor coil formed underneath said diaphragm.
- 46. The sensor of claim 42 wherein said inductor coil is formed by disposing conductive material in a predetermined pattern in a surface of said non-compliant region about said compliant region of said surface.
- 47. The sensor of claim 42 further comprising a control unit for generating the external signal for energizing said impedance element and for measuring a signal representative of intraocular pressure.
- 48. The sensor of claim 47 wherein said control unit includes processing means for measuring signals representative of intraocular pressure at different times during a predetermined time interval, and a memory for storing the measured signals representative of the intraocular pressure measured at said different times.
- 49. A method for measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) of an eye, said method comprising the steps of:
positioning a tonographic sensor on a surface portion of the eye, the sensor having a compliant region that functions as an impedance element; applying pressure to the tonographic sensor against the surface portion of the eye to cause the compliant region to change shape such that the impedance of the compliant region is varied; measuring the impedance of the compliant region; and determining a representative pressure measurement from the measured impedance.
- 50. The method of claim 49 wherein said step of measuring the impedance of the compliant region includes the step of energizing an inductive region of the tonographic sensor that is connected to the compliant region to cause a circuit formed by the regions to resonate.
- 51. The method of claim 50 wherein said step of energizing the impedance element includes the step of generating an electromagnetic signal with a frequency that is swept through a frequency range over a predetermined time interval, an associated resonant frequency of the circuit falling within said frequency range.
- 52. The method of claim 51 wherein said step of determining a representative pressure includes the steps of determining the resonant frequency of the circuit each time the inductive region is energized, the resonant frequencies sampled being representative of the intraocular pressure of the eye at different times.
- 53. The method of claim 49 further comprising the steps of:
time marking each determined IOP; and storing each determined IOP along with its corresponding measurement time.
- 54. The method of claim 53 further comprising the step of transmitting the stored IOP measurements and their corresponding measurement times to an external site.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of a co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/642,573, entitled “SYSTEM FOR MEASURING INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE FOR AN EYE AND A MEM SENSOR FOR USE THEREWITH”, filed Aug. 21, 2000. The subject matter of the aforementioned co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference.
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10128321 |
Apr 2002 |
US |
Child |
10841996 |
May 2004 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09642573 |
Aug 2000 |
US |
Child |
10128321 |
Apr 2002 |
US |