Eye Parameter Monitoring via Coordinate Transformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current ophthalmic diagnostic and surgical tools lack a process-consistent coordinate system, leading to systematic errors during eye surgery due to assumptions about eye orientation and marker accuracy, which complicates the precise alignment and monitoring of eye parameters over multiple sessions.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus using a camera and ring-shaped illumination to capture corneal reflections, determining eye parameters in a spherical or ellipsoidal eye model, and calculating eye motion in six degrees of freedom to transform and visualize these parameters across sessions, ensuring accurate alignment and monitoring in a consistent coordinate system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a process-consistent coordinate system is implemented to eliminate systematic errors, then measurement precision and reliability improve, but device complexity and system integration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a coordinate transformation module as an intermediary between different diagnostic devices and the surgical system. This module captures eye motion in six degrees of freedom and transforms parameters between different coordinate systems, eliminating systematic errors without requiring direct integration between all devices. The intermediary handles the complexity of coordinate system matching, allowing individual devices to maintain their own coordinate systems while achieving process consistency through transformation.
2Reliability
If eye motion is tracked and compensated in real-time, then measurement reliability improves, but the complexity of data processing and transformation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary capture of eye motion parameters using a camera system that tracks corneal reflections and determines six degrees of freedom motion. By capturing the motion data before surgical procedures and pre-calculating transformation matrices, the system establishes a reference coordinate system in advance. This preliminary action allows subsequent measurements to be transformed using pre-computed parameters, reducing real-time processing complexity while maintaining reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables precise monitoring and visualization of eye parameters over time, compensating for eye motion and reducing systematic errors, allowing for more accurate surgical planning and post-surgical analysis by maintaining a consistent coordinate system across multiple sessions.
Implementation Method 1
an illumination unit for illuminating the eye by a ring-shaped light pattern to generate corneal reflections
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus for monitoring one or more parameters of the eye of a patient over multiple sessions which are temporally spaced apart and between which the eye of the patient can have moved, said apparatus comprising: a camera for taking one or more images of the eye; an illumination unit for illuminating the eye by a ring-shaped light pattern to generate corneal reflections, said illumination unit being preferably located such that the center of the ring is coaxial with the optical axis of the camera; a module for determining during a first session the location of the corneal reflections in the image of the eye; a module for determining during said first session based on said determined location of the corneal reflections, at least one further parameter of the eye and its coordinates in a first coordinate system based on a geometrical model representing the eye as a spherical eyeball having a spherically shaped cornea mounted thereon; a module for determining during a second session temporally spaced apart from said first session said location of said corneal reflections of the eye and based thereon said further eye parameter and its coordinates in a second coordinate system; a module for determining the eye motion in six degrees of freedom between said first and said second session and for determining a coordinate transformation based thereon; a module for transforming based on said determined eye motion said further eye parameter and its coordinates from said first coordinate system into said second coordinate system; a module for quantifying and/or visualizing the change of said further eye parameter between said first and said second session based on said further parameter and its coordinates measured during said second session and said transformed parameter and its coordinates measured during said first session.