Optics techniques have been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois that allow ophthalmologists to see the individual cells in the eye ball at the back of a patient’s eye. The benefit of this adaptive optics technique gives the doctor a detailed view of the eye’s blood vessels, cells and the nerves at the back of eye.
With this technology, ophthalmologists can effect earlier diagnosis for those with degenerative eye diseases and neurological orders. This technology is the same adaptive optics technology that astronomers use to correct telescope images so they can more clearly see stars that reside behind the ones in the forefront. By using the optical coherence tomography (OCT) ophthalmologists can capture general images of the eye but have not been able to focus on the individual rods and cones in the eyeball. OCT images are usually not as clear as is necessary for an eye doctor to gain a clear image because the OCT images are usually blurred by the eye’s inherent imperfections and by its continual motion.
The University researchers used computational adaptive optics and applied algorithms to the OCT data as a way to correct for the motion and aberrations in the eye. This offered the ophthalmologists the high-resolution, real-time images they were seeking in order to offer patients a better diagnosis.
In addition to the software, hardware was developed to enhance the optics system by using a complex set up of lenses, mirrors and lasers. The computational adaptive optics are also better suited to the new technology because it can be tailored to the patient’s unique eye structure and shape. The doctor can scan the eye and then focus on different areas of it based on specific algorithms that are input for that patient’s unique eye.
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