The present disclosure is generally directed to ophthalmic systems for use in diagnosing and treating conditions of the eye, and more specifically to illumination systems and methods for ophthalmic systems.
A conventional slit lamp is an instrument consisting of a high-intensity light source. The high-intensity light source can be focused to shine a beam of light into a patient's eye. The beam of light is often focused to shine a desired light pattern into the patient's eye, such as a thin slit-shaped sheet of light.
Slit lamps are typically used in ophthalmic illumination systems to allow a practitioner to diagnose and treat conditions of the eye, e.g., by enabling a practitioner to view the patient's eye. For example, a slit lamp may be a component of a clinical bio-microscope used to facilitate an examination of structures within a patient's eye, including the eyelid, retina, sclera, conjunctiva, iris, lens and cornea.
A clinical bio-microscope is typically composed of a viewing system that is co-pivotal with a slit lamp to allow various angles of viewing and angles of illumination to a patient's eye. For example, a relatively oblique angle of illumination may be chosen to enhance the surface details and texture of a patient's eye by showing a shadowing on the distal edge of the subject. In contrast, a relatively direct coaxial angle of illumination may be chosen to more accurately show color, size and relative position of a subject (e.g., a retina) in relation to other anatomy. A relatively direct coaxial angle of illumination also may appear to flatten structures that would otherwise appear to be more three-dimensional when illuminated at a relatively severe angle.
Several factors can affect the quality of eye visualization, including opaque and highly reflective cornea tissue, iris color and other biological variables. As such, conventional slit lamps typically include orientation and angle settings (e.g., settings for various slit sizes and shapes), a rotating filter wheel (also known as a color wheel filter), and other mechanisms to allow for exposure adjustment control in an illuminated image of a patient's eye. In many existing ophthalmic illumination systems, however, slit lamp adjustment controls are limited, which can reduce the achievable quality of an illuminated image of a patient's eye that can be viewed by a practitioner or photographed.
A micro-display based slit lamp illumination system is provided. A first optical element is configured to generate a micro-display image including an illuminated area. A second optical element is configured to receive the micro-display image, and focus the micro-display image upon an eye to be examined, wherein light is reflected from the eye as a result of the illuminated area. The first optical element may be a micro-display projector and include one of a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), digital-micro-mirror (DMD) or micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) micro-scanner and one of a visible (RGB) light-emitting diode (LED) or laser light source or invisible (infrared, ultraviolet) LED or laser light source.
In accordance with an embodiment, a controller may be configured to receive a parameter for generating the micro-display image, wherein the parameter is related to one of a color, shape or size of the illuminated area. The controller may transmit a command based on the parameter to the first optical element.
In accordance with an embodiment, the illuminated area may be one of a slit-shaped, round or polygonal-shaped area, and the micro-display image may include a plurality of illuminated areas.
In accordance with an embodiment, the micro-display image may include concurrent information. The concurrent information may relate to measurement information, patient data, a treatment parameter, a preoperative image or a treatment plan.
These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
Primary light source 110 comprises a conventional slit lamp. Many conventional slit-lamp-based illumination systems use a high-intensity/high-pressure light source, such as a halogen light source that produces and channels white light to the slit lamp. The use of white light does not permit a practitioner to control with precision the color of the light that enters the slit lamp, and therefore limits the range of observations that can be made by the practitioner. As such, it is sometimes advantageous to observe certain structures of the eye, and/or certain medical conditions, using selected colors of light.
Typical illumination systems use one or more color filters to control the color of light delivered to the eye in order to facilitate the observation of certain aspects of the eye that may be difficult to visualize under white light. For example, color wheel filter 115 may be used to produce red, blue, or green light, to remove infrared light, or to otherwise select the color of light 105 that passes through to mirror 120. However, even with the use of filters, such as color wheel filter 115, the practitioner is limited by the filters currently available and therefore may not be able to achieve a desired level of precision in the selection of the color of light used.
In system 200, micro-display projector 210 generates a micro-display image 205 including an illuminated area which is directed by mirror 220 toward a patient's eye 230. Micro-display image 205 is displayed upon patient's eye 230 and is reflected at least in part based on the illuminated area, generating reflected light 240. Reflected light 240 propagates toward a practitioner's eye 290, allowing the practitioner to view structures within patient's eye 230.
Micro-display projector 210 may be any type of micro-display or pico projector comprising an optical engine (e.g., an illumination source, modulator and projection optics). For example, micro-display projector 210 may be a stand-alone projector or a projector that is integrated into another device, such as a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone) or a notebook computer.
Micro-display projector 210 may include one of a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), digital-micro-mirror device (DMD), 2-D micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) or 2-D X/Y galvanometer set micro-scanner for generating an image. Micro-display projector 210 also may comprise relay optics (e.g., to illuminate a micro-display with an illumination area dimension matching the micro-display size), and a collimation or projection lens.
Further, micro-display projector 210 may include one or more sources of visible and/or invisible illumination to be operable to form, e.g., an infrared or color image projection. The one or more sources of visible and/or invisible illumination may include a halogen lamp, a white light emitting diode (LED), one or more coaxial LEDs (e.g., red, green, blue, amber or near-infrared LEDs) or one or more coaxial lasers (e.g., red-green-blue (RGB) or near-infrared lasers). In an embodiment, an exemplary light source for micro-display projector 210 may have an illumination range of around 10-200 lumens. One skilled in the art will note that micro-display projector 210 may include several other elements, and that the micro-display projector features and components discussed herein are merely illustrative and, therefore, are not intended to be exhaustive.
In an embodiment, micro-display projector 210 generates micro-display projection 205 such that an image including an illuminated area is directed by mirror 220 for display upon patient's eye 230. For example, micro-display projector 210 may generate micro-display projection 205 to project one or more slit-shaped, round or polygonal-shaped areas or channels of white or colored light upon patient's eye 230. As such, micro-display projector 210 can be configured, e.g., via a command received from controller 295, to generate micro-display projections that allow for a wide range of observations to be made by a practitioner.
In an embodiment, controller 295 may be configured to receive user inputs via control switches, knobs, or a GUI interface (e.g. a touch-screen display or LCD with a mouse/trackpad interface), and transmit one or more commands to micro-display projector 210 to generate a micro-display projection 205 based on the one or more received user inputs. Controller 295 also may transmit one or more commands to micro-display projector 210 to adjust the color, brightness and timing of micro-display projection 205 based on one or more user inputs. Controller 295 also may be configured to receive inputs from one or more external sources (e.g. a camera flash trigger or a computer processing real-time slit-lamp video) and transmit commands to projector 210.
As such, micro-display projector 210 can generate a micro-display image 205 including illuminated areas having selected colors of light, thereby emulating the effect of color wheel filter 115, shown in
In addition, micro-display projector 210 may be configured to emulate the operation of a conventional slit-lamp-based illumination system by allowing for various angles of viewing and angles of illumination to patient's eye 230. For example, micro-display projector 210 may be configured to swivel about an image plane or to scan the micro-display projection 205 of an image across a desired range (e.g., across a 180 deg range).
For example, concurrent information 320 may include visual information received or generated by micro-display projector 210, including any type of image or data that may be projected onto a patient's eye 330. Concurrent information 320 may include patient information, the current time and date, or other information that may be of use in a clinical environment. In another example, concurrent information 320 may measurement information regarding micro-display image 300, such as a measurement axis, distance, area, scale or grid. Measurement information also may include a current illumination area diameter, current slit width, inter-slit spacing, current filter choice, micrometer scale labeling, or circle/ellipse radii, ratios and areas.
When illumination system 200 is used in conjunction with therapy systems including laser systems and other equipment, concurrent information 320 may include one of a treatment parameter or a preoperative image, treatment plan, an aiming beam pattern or a treatment beam target indicator. For example, concurrent information 320 may be received from a laser system console to include information regarding treatment laser parameters, such as, e.g., power, spot-size and spacing for display as part of micro-display projection 300.
In accordance with various embodiments, micro-display projector 210 and controller 295 may be configured to create images corresponding to clinically useful slit-lamp settings, such as those shown in
As such, at controller 295 color gradation may be selectable via preset red-green-blue (RGB) intensity settings or may be continuously variable based on user inputs.
At step 910, a parameter for generating the micro-display image is received. Referring to
At step 912, a command based on the parameter is transmitted to micro-display projector 210. Referring to
At step 914, a first optical element is configured to generate an image including an illuminated area. For example, the first optical element may be a micro-display projector including one of a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), digital-micro-mirror (DMD) or micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) micro-scanner and one of a light-emitting diode (LED) or red-green-blue (RGB) laser light source. Referring to
At step 916, a second optical element is configured to receive the micro-display image. Referring to
At step 918, the second element is configured to direct the projection of the image upon an eye to be examined, wherein light is reflected from the eye as a result of the image. Referring to
As such, a micro-display slit-lamp illumination system as disclosed herein may serve as a replacement for a traditional slit-lamp illuminator. Moreover, the micro-display slit-lamp illumination system can extend the capabilities of a traditional slit-lamp illuminator from simple illumination to quantification of observed tissue, as well as presentation of additional clinically relevant information.
Systems, apparatus, and methods described herein may be implemented using digital circuitry, or using one or more computers using well-known computer processors, memory units, storage devices, computer software, and other components. Typically, a computer includes a processor for executing instructions and one or more memories for storing instructions and data. A computer may also include, or be coupled to, one or more mass storage devices, such as one or more magnetic disks, internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disks, optical disks, etc.
Systems, apparatus, and methods described herein may be implemented using computers operating in a client-server relationship. Typically, in such a system, the client computers are located remotely from the server computer and interact via a network. The client-server relationship may be defined and controlled by computer programs running on the respective client and server computers.
Systems, apparatus, and methods described herein may be used within a network-based cloud computing system. In such a network-based cloud computing system, a server or another processor that is connected to a network communicates with one or more client computers via a network. A client computer may communicate with the server via a network browser application residing and operating on the client computer, for example. A client computer may store data on the server and access the data via the network. A client computer may transmit requests for data, or requests for online services, to the server via the network. The server may perform requested services and provide data to the client computer(s). The server may also transmit data adapted to cause a client computer to perform a specified function, e.g., to perform a calculation, to display specified data on a screen, etc. For example, the server may transmit a request adapted to cause a client computer to perform one or more of the method steps described herein, including one or more of the steps of
Systems, apparatus, and methods described herein may be implemented using a computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in a non-transitory machine-readable storage device, for execution by a programmable processor; and the method steps described herein, including one or more of the steps of
A high-level block diagram of an exemplary computer that may be used to implement systems, apparatus and methods described herein is illustrated in
Processor 1010 may include both general and special purpose microprocessors, and may be the sole processor or one of multiple processors of computer 1000. Processor 1010 may comprise one or more central processing units (CPUs), for example. Processor 1010, data storage device 1020, and/or memory 1030 may include, be supplemented by, or incorporated in, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and/or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
Data storage device 1020 and memory 1030 each comprise a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium. Data storage device 1020, and memory 1030, may each include high-speed random access memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR RAM), or other random access solid state memory devices, and may include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, semiconductor memory devices, such as erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc read-only memory (DVD-ROM) disks, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices.
Input/output devices 1050 may include peripherals, such as a printer, scanner, display screen, etc. For example, input/output devices 1150 may include a display device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma or liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor for displaying information to the user, a keyboard, and a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball by which the user can provide input to computer 1100.
Any or all of the systems and apparatus discussed herein, including micro-display projector 210 and controller 295 may be implemented using a computer such as computer 1000.
One skilled in the art will recognize that an implementation of an actual computer or computer system may have other structures and may contain other components as well, and that
The foregoing Detailed Description is to be understood as being in every respect illustrative and exemplary, but not restrictive, and the scope of the invention disclosed herein is not to be determined from the Detailed Description, but rather from the claims as interpreted according to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws. It is to be understood that the embodiments shown and described herein are only illustrative of the principles of the present invention and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Those skilled in the art could implement various other feature combinations without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.