Ophthalmic Device Turning Drive Unit for Face Contact Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ophthalmic devices, such as laser flare meters and slit lamps, pose a risk of contact with the subject's face due to reduced working distances, and require subjects to move their body to adjust chin rests, which can be burdensome and increase the risk of accidental contact.
Innovation Solution
An ophthalmic device with a turning drive unit that rotates and moves the optical head horizontally while maintaining the positional relationships between the light projection, reception, and fixation systems, allowing the device to be moved away from the subject's face without imposing a physical burden, and includes a setting unit to adjust the turning angle based on the subject's features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the working distance is reduced to decrease device size, then the overall device size decreases, but the device may come into contact with the subject's face
Solution Approach 1:
The optical head is made dynamically adjustable through the turning drive unit, which can rotate and translate the optical head horizontally. This allows the device to adapt its position dynamically during operation, moving away from the subject's face when needed while maintaining compact overall dimensions.
Solution Approach 2:
The device is segmented into a fixed housing and a movable optical head. The optical head can be independently positioned and rotated relative to the housing, allowing the main device body to remain compact while the optical head can be adjusted to avoid contact with the subject's face.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the chin rest support is changed according to subject eye (right/left) to prevent contact, then contact between device and face is prevented, but the subject has to move the body which imposes a burden
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring the subject to move their body or chin to adjust the support position, the invention inverts the approach by making the optical head movable. The turning drive unit rotates and translates the optical head to adjust its position, keeping the subject stationary while the device adapts to avoid contact with the face.
Solution Approach 2:
The device performs self-adjustment through the turning drive unit, which automatically rotates and positions the optical head based on the selected subject eye. This eliminates the need for the subject to physically adjust their position or for manual reconfiguration of the chin rest, making the system self-adapting.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the optical head is rotated and moved horizontally to increase distance from face, then contact is avoided, but the positional relationships between optical systems must be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The turning drive unit combines two functions into a single integrated mechanism: rotation of the optical head and horizontal translation. This merging of functions reduces the overall structural complexity compared to having separate rotation and translation mechanisms, while still achieving the goal of increasing distance from the subject's face.
Data Source
AI summary
An ophthalmic device (1) of the present invention has an optical head (2) including a light projection optical system (21) that projects light onto a subject eye (E), a light reception optical system (22) that receives light from the subject eye (E), and a fixation lamp (23) for guiding a line-of-sight direction of the subject eye (E), and a turning drive unit that turns the optical head (2) in a horizontal direction while maintaining positional relationships between the light projection optical system (21), the light reception optical system (22), and the fixation lamp (23). The turning drive unit is composed of a rotational drive unit (4) that rotates the optical head (2) in the horizontal direction and a horizontal drive unit (3) that moves the optical head (2) in the horizontal direction.