Portable digital medical camera for capturing images of the retina or the external auditory canal, and methods of use

Abstract

A hand-held digital camera for obtaining images of a portion of a patient's body and having a hand-held housing, a visible light source located within the housing for providing light along an illumination path from the housing aperture to the patient's body, an image sensor located within the housing that detects light returning from the patient's body along an imaging path that passes into the housing aperture, an optical system located within the housing with separate illumination and imaging paths, an external optical aperture common to the illumination and imaging systems, wherein the illumination and imaging sub-apertures are wholly contained within the common external aperture, are longitudinally coincident, and are laterally separated and non-overlapping, a digital memory device for storing captured images, an output display carried by the housing, and the ability to electronically transmit stored images. The camera can be used for retinal imaging and for otoscopy.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims priority of Provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 700,513 filed on Jul. 19, 2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.GOVERNMENT RIGHTS[0002]This invention was made with Government support under (Grant Number 2 R44 EY 13492-02) awarded by the National Bye Institute. The Government has certain rights in the invention. The inventor is an employee of the assignee, Optimum Technologies, Inc. of Southbridge, Mass.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0003]This invention relates to a digital camera that is adapted to capture high-quality images of the retina and / or the external auditory canal of the ear, and transmit the images to an expert at a remote location, and to methods by which such a camera is used.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0004]Diabetic Retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness of adults aged 20-74 years, causing up to 14,000 new cases of blindness each year. 15.7 million Americans, or 8.2% of the a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0043]Also featured is a method that allows a remotely-located expert to interpret an image of a portion of a patient's body, comprising providing a hand-held camera comprising a hand-held housing that is adapted to be placed close to the portion of a patient's body being imaged, a visible light source located within the housing for providing light along an illumination path from the housing aperture to the patient's body, an image sensor located within the housing that detects light returning from the patient's body along an imaging path into the housing aperture, an output display carried by the housing, an optical system located within the housing and that separates the illumination and imaging paths, an external optical aperture common to the illumination and imaging systems, in which the illumination and imaging sub-apertures are wholly contained within the common external aperture, are longitudinally coincident, and are laterally separated and non-overlapping, a digital memory device for storing captured images, an output display carried by the housing, and a means of electronically transmitting stored images. The camera is used to capture an image of the portion of a patient's body being imaged. A computer with a display device is provided at a remote location. The captured image is transmitted over a network to the remote computer, for interpretation by an expert. Application software may be provided in the computer to facilitate the review, interpretation, and archiving of images.

Problems solved by technology

The inventive device is greatly needed in developing countries where electrical distribution is limited and unreliable.

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