IMPROVED EYE SURFACE TOPOGRAPHER

Abstract

The invention concerns a system for determining the topography of a diffusely reflecting curved surface, that comprises two telecentric projection branches that project fringe images of a Ronchi grating on the diffusely reflecting curved surface, and a viewing branch of which the optical system projects an image of the illuminated surface on its camera target, and comprises further a computer that receives the fringe images recorded by the camera target and calculates from these the topography of the anterior eye surfaces, in which system the projection sources are semiconductor diodes and the optical system of the viewing branch is two-sided telecentric.

Claims

1. A system for determining the topography of a diffusely reflecting curved surface, comprising two telecentric projection branches that independently project fringe images of a Ronchi grating on the diffusely reflecting curved surface and a viewing branch of which the optical system projects an image of the diffusely reflecting curved surface on its camera target, further comprising a computer that receives the fringe images recorded by the camera target and calculates the topography of the diffusely reflecting curved surface, wherein: the projection sources in the projection branches are semiconductor diodes that emit light of a wavelength between 400 and 500 nm; the optical axes of the projection branches and the viewing branch lie in one plane; the angles between the axes of the projection branches and the viewing branch are equal and opposite and the three axes intersect in one point; the optical system of the viewing branch is telecentric in its object space and its image space and transmits light of a wavelength longer than 500 nm; and a focusing tool is included in the system, the focusing tool comprising two narrow beams focused from different angles on the surface to be measured.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor diodes are light emitting diodes (LED).

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor diodes are blue diode lasers.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the optical axes of the projection branches make angles from 10 to 45 with a projection plane.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein a focus criterion is obtained by computer software.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the optical system is moved by a servomotor controlled by the computer.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein projection lenses of the projection branches can be moved axially by actuators.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein the orientation of the Ronchi gratings can be controlled by rotating the gratings by actuators.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein one or both of the optical axes of the projection branches are folded by two mirrors (17) and (18) positioned on equal but opposite distances from the slit diaphragm.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the mirrors are rotatable over small angles about their nominal position and about perpendicular rotation axes.

11. A system according to claim 9, wherein an infrared light emitting diode is mounted behind one of the mirrors.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the mirror has a dichroic beamsplitter coating.

13. A system according to claim 1, wherein in the optical system of the viewing branch a backlighted object is mounted that is imaged by a beam splitting mirror on the aperture stop.

14.-21. (canceled)

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0042] With specific reference now to the figures, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the different embodiments of the present invention only. They are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention. The description taken with the drawings makes apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice.

[0043] FIG. 1 shows an outline of the EST system in its most elementary form.

[0044] FIG. 2 shows an outline of the focusing tool used in EST.

[0045] FIG. 3 shows a folded optical path of a projection branch, including an infrared LED for illuminating the eye before and after the blue radiation exposure.

[0046] FIG. 4 shows an arrangement for viewing along the visual axis of the eye.

[0047] In the drawings, identical elements are labelled with the same reference numbers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0048] The present invention aims to provide a new system for determining the topography of a diffusely reflecting curved surface. More in particular, the present invention relates to an optical system for determining the topography of the front surfaces, cornea and sclera of the human eye. Said optical system is also called the Eye Surface Topographer (EST). The system according to the present invention is here further described in detail based on the presented figures.

[0049] FIG. 1 shows an outline of the EST system in its most elementary form. The following components of the EST topographer system can be seen in FIG. 1: (1) is the projection source, which is a semiconductor diode, and thus can be a LED or a blue diode laser, the central wavelength of which is, for example, smaller than 500 nm; the spectral filter (2) blocks all radiation with wavelengths above, for example, 500 nm; the condensor lens (3) projects an image of the source on the slit diaphragm (5); the component (4) is a Ronchi grating that can be rotated in its plane over small angles; the slit diaphragm (5) acts as a spatial frequency filter on the transmission distribution of the Ronchi grating (4); the projection lens (6) projects a sinusoidal intensity distribution with a period of, for example, 250 m on the plane of projection (7). Because the slit diaphragm (7) is situated in the focal plane of the projection lens (6), the projection is telecentric; on distances of, for example, 10 mm from the projection plane (7) a useful fringe pattern will be seen. The eye of the test person will be preferably in a position where the top of the anterior eye surface (8) touches the projection plane (7); this can be realized by moving the entire optical system in a direction perpendicular to the projection plane. The viewing branch of the test system according to the present invention consists of the front lens (9), the aperture diaphragm or aperture stop (10), the spectral filter (11) that blocks radiation with wavelengths below, for example, 500 nm, this blocking wavelength being identical to the blocking wavelength of the spectral filter (2); the rear camera lens (12) and the camera target (13). From the camera target the fringe images are sent to the computer (14) that calculate the height image of the anterior eye surface.

[0050] FIG. 2 shows the principle of the focusing tool used in the EST system according to the present invention. Two narrow beams (15) and (16), coming from positions on the side of the front camera lens (9) (the sources are not shown and can, for instance, be LED's in the focal plane of a lens) are focused in plane (7), on the outer part of the cornea (also not shown). When the cornea is not in the preferred position but with its top in the plane denoted by a dotted line (22), spots are seen by the operator on the computer screen in the positions L and R. Minimizing the sideways distance between the spots gives a perfect focus.

[0051] In FIG. 3 a folded version of the projection branch is shown. We recognize the projection lens (6) and the slit diaphragm (5). The mirrors (17) and (18) can be rotated about perpendicular axes over small angles about their nominal positions, the slit diaphragm (5) can be shifted sideways in the plane of the drawing; the mirror (17) can be an aluminium (Al) layer on glass, whereas the beamsplitting mirror (18) is a dichroic dielectric spectral filter. Behind mirror (18) an infrared LED (19) is mounted that illuminates the anterior eye when a photograph is taken by the EST camera.

[0052] In FIG. 4 a backlighted object (20) is shown that is imaged by the beamsplitter (21) in the plane of the aperture stop (10). During measurement, the test person fixates the object (20) through the camera lens (9) with his eye in position (8) near the plane (7). As a result, the visual axis of the eye is in line with the optical axis of the camera branch during the time of the measurement.