An ocular device is disclosed along with methods for the employment thereof. In one aspect, a device for placement into a lacrimal punctum or conjunctival sac of a person includes one or more sensor materials responsive to one or more components of the chemical composition of the person's tears. Each sensor material is configured to present a tear-based color from a plurality of tear-based colors indicative of a medical condition of the person. In some embodiments, phenylboronic acid could be employed as a sensor material(s). In some embodiments, material(s) emitting radiation when excited by other radiation could be employed as a sensor material. In another aspect, methods for employing the ocular device are disclosed.

A device to determine a state of the lacrimal layer of the eye includes at least one light source arranged to form a pattern of source points for projecting a plurality of light rays onto a cornea surface; a lens-camera system arranged to receive a respective plurality of reflected light rays reflected on the cornea surface, thereby forming a pattern of image points; and a computational unit arranged to determine on the basis of the image points the state of the lacrimal layer of the eye and/or to determine on the basis of the image points data representative for the state of the lacrimal layer of the eye and to provide the data representative for the state of the lacrimal layer of the eye to a user.

An apparatus comprises a support structure. The apparatus also comprises a plurality of sensors positioned on the support structure. The apparatus also comprises a camera positioned on the support structure. The camera has a field of view that includes an eye of a user. The apparatus also includes one or more processors and memory. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processors to detect ambient condition data using the plurality of sensors. The processors also capture imaging data that includes the eye using the camera. The processors determine a first predefined state of the eye based on the detected ambient condition data and the captured imaging data. The processors further dispense a fluid proximate to the eye in accordance with the first predefined state of the eye.

A method for dynamically evaluating a tear fluid layer using an interference fringe image of the tear fluid layer composed of a plurality of consecutive frames, and includes: an image creation step of creating at least one break detection image of a first break detection image, a second break detection image, a third break detection image, and a fourth break detection image, which are images for detecting a breaking site of the tear fluid layer; a determination step of determining whether the break detection image created by the image creation step corresponds to a predetermined breakup pattern; a tally step of tallying the determination results determined by the determination step; and an evaluation step of evaluating, on the basis of a tallied result by the tally step, a breakup pattern of the interference fringe image of the tear fluid layer.

In certain embodiments, an ophthalmic system for assessing a tear film of an eye comprises measuring devices and a computer. The measuring devices detect light reflected from the eye, where an ocular surface of the eye comprises the tear film, and generate data from the reflected light that describes the eye. The computer aligns the data corresponding to the same location for a plurality of locations, assesses the data at the locations to detect one or more abnormalities of the tear film, and determines a tear film description from the assessment of the data at the locations.

An ophthalmologic apparatus includes: an objective lens that faces a subject's eye; an alignment light emitting unit that irradiates the subject's eye with alignment light to perform measurement of alignment between the objective lens and the subject's eye; an alignment reflection light receiving unit that receives alignment reflection light, which is a reflection of the alignment light from the subject's eye; an anterior segment camera that receives corneal reflection light; and a holder positioned between the anterior segment camera and the objective lens to hold the anterior segment camera, wherein the holder includes an imaging transmissive portion that transmits the corneal reflection light to the anterior segment camera, a first light-transmissive portion that transmits the alignment light from the alignment light emitting unit, and a second light-transmissive portion that transmits the alignment reflection light from the subject's eye.

A lacrimal tear flow measurement device, and methods of manufacture and use, are described that includes a polymer microcapillary tube or similar structure having at least one end coated on the outside with soft silicone rubber and one end treated on the inside to be hydrophobic. The hydrophobic end keeps liquid from escaping or entering that end while allowing air to pass. The rest of the tube's insides may be hydrophilic or a neutral hydrophobe. As a Schirmer's test strip replacement, the entrance end of the device can be touched to the lacrimal lake of a patient's eye to collect suck up, or merely collect, tear fluid within the collection tube for weighing, volume measurement, or other analysis. Long-term collection devices for wear between doctors' visits can have a bypass channel allowing liquid to flow back onto the eye.

A method for inspecting an ophthalmic device which allows reflected light from an imaging inspection subject, which has been irradiated with light by using an illumination optical system of the ophthalmic device, to be received by using an image-capturing optical system of the ophthalmic device to capture an image of the imaging inspection subject; extracts color information from the captured image of the imaging inspection subject; and determines whether or not the color information satisfies a prescribed reference condition by comparing the extracted color information with reference information. An inspection jig for an ophthalmic device is used in the method for inspecting an ophthalmic device. Furthermore, the ophthalmic device includes the inspection jig.

An automatic and manual zooming mechanism based on ophthalmic slit lamp with dry eye inspection, characterized in that it comprises an optical body zoom drum seat, an optical body zoom drum, a zoom handwheel and an electric drive mechanism; The doubling drum is installed in the optical body zooming drum seat, and the two ends of the optical body zooming drum are respectively connected with zooming handwheels through connecting shafts; on the optical body zooming drum seat An electric drive mechanism is provided, and the electric drive mechanism is used to drive the optical body variable magnification drum to rotate. First, the structure is simple, and it is convenient to realize the automatic zoom function of the slit lamp of the Galileo optical system and the slit lamp type dry eye inspection instrument; second, the automatic zoom function of the slit lamp of the Galileo optical system is realized, while the manual zoom function is also retained. Third, it is convenient to realize the intelligent operation and remote operation of the entire slit lamp and the slit lamp type dry eye inspection instrument.

Ocular surface interferometry devices, systems, and methods are disclosed for imaging an ocular tear film. An imaging device can be focused on the lipid layer of the tear film to capture optical wave interference interactions of specularly reflected light from the tear film combined with a background signal(s) in a first image, wherein the specularly reflected light may be produced from various portions of the ocular tear film by obliquely illuminating various portions of the ocular tear film with a multi-wavelength light source, such as in a tiling pattern(s). The imaging device can also be focused on the lipid layer to capture a second image containing the background signal(s) present in the first image. The second image can be subtracted from the first image to reduce and/or eliminate the background signal(s) in the first image to produce a resulting image, which can used to measure a tear film layer thickness.