System, method and computer accessible medium for determining eye motion by imaging retina and providing feedback for acquisition of signals from the retina

• US 10,117,576 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2014
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The General Hospital Corporation (Mass General Brigham, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The General Hospital Corporation (Mass General Brigham, Inc.)
• Inventors: de Boer, Johannes F., Vermeer, Koenraad
• Primary Examiner(s): Pasko, Nicholas R
• Application Number:
  US14/906,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20160157715A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,569 Days
• Field of Search: 351206, 351209, 351210
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0008 provided with illuminating means A61B3/117 takes precedence; goniolenses used for laser treatment A61F9/009; illuminating means for optical instruments G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0025 characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/102 for optical coherence tomography [OCT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/12 for looking at the eye fundus, e.g. ophthalmoscopes A61B3/13 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/14 Arrangements specially adapted for eye photography apparatus or arrangements for taking photographs per se G03B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/18 Arrangement of plural eye-testing or -examining apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7207 of noise induced by motion artifacts
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00

Abstract

The human eye is constantly in motion. For many imaging applications in the eye, eye motion on the time scale of the image acquisition distorts the images. For imaging applications where the signal is very low, image distortion is so severe that imaging is impossible. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, systems, methods and computer-accessible medium can be provided to determine eye motion in real time, and provide real time correction of the eye motion for secondary imaging methods to provide stable images and permit long integration times of single images to increase the signal to noise.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining tracking a motion of at least one portion of an anatomical structure, comprising:

at least one detector first arrangement which is configured to simultaneously detect a plurality of electromagnetic radiations which are provided from multiple points within the at least one portion, wherein the electromagnetic radiations are received in a confocal configuration; and

at least one computer second arrangement which is configured to (i) obtain at least one reference first image of the at least one portion, and (ii) generate at least one second image of the at least one portion based on the detected electromagnetic radiations, wherein the at least one second image has a lower resolution than the at least one reference first image, wherein the at least one second image is a subsampled full-field image that is subsampled based on a subset of pixel locations of the first image, and wherein the at least one computer second arrangement is further configured to determine the motion based on a comparison of the first and second images.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the anatomical structure is an eye, and wherein the at least one computer second arrangement determines the motion of the at least one portion of the eye.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one computer second arrangement is configured to generate a plurality of the at least one second images, and determine the motion based on the comparison between the first image and each of the plurality of the at least one second images.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one computer second arrangement includes at least one particular device which includes at least one of a field programmable gated array (FPGA) or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), and wherein the determination of the motion is performed by the at least one particular device.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a digital micromirror device (DMD) which at least one of (i) forwards a particular electromagnetic radiation to the at least one portion or (ii) provides the electromagnetic radiations from the at least one portion.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least one polarizer, wherein the at least one polarizer forwards a particular electromagnetic radiation to the at least one portion, wherein the plurality of electromagnetic radiations are associated with the particular electromagnetic radiation.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the particular electromagnetic radiation is provided via a digital micromirror device.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a digital micromirror device (DMD),

wherein the at least one detector first arrangement comprises a camera, and

wherein the DMD forwards a particular electromagnetic radiation to the at least one portion and provides the plurality of electromagnetic radiations from the multiple points within the at least one portion to the camera.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the at least one second image is formed by activating a first plurality of mirror elements of the array of the DMD and inactivating a second plurality of mirror elements of the array of the DMD, different from the first plurality of mirror elements, and

wherein the subset of pixel locations for the at least one second image corresponds to the first plurality of mirror elements.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least one optical third arrangement which is controlled by the at least one computer second arrangement to adjust at least one component of at least one of optical component of mechanical components thereof based on the motion.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one component is adjusted to provide at least one further signal, and further comprising at least one computer fourth arrangement which is configured to generate a stabilized image of at least one of (i) the at least one portion or (ii) at least one further portion of the anatomical structure based on the at least one further signal.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the fourth arrangement is part of an optical coherence tomography system.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one component is adjusted to provide a therapy to the at least one portion which is unaffected by the motion.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one component is adjusted to provide at least one further signal to the at least one computer second arrangement, and wherein the second arrangement is further configured to generate a stabilized image of at least one of (i) the at least one portion, or (ii) at least one further portion of the anatomical structure based on the at least one further signal.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the at least one computer second arrangement is further configured to cause a generation of a further reference image based on the stabilized image, and determine the motion based on the comparison between the further reference image and the second image.

16. A method for determining tracking a motion of at least one portion of an anatomical structure, comprising:

simultaneously detecting a plurality of electromagnetic radiations which are provided from multiple points within the at least one portion, wherein the electromagnetic radiations are received in a confocal configuration; and

obtaining at least one reference first image of the at least one portion;

generating at least one second image of the at least one portion based on the detected electromagnetic radiations, wherein the at least one second image has a lower resolution than the at least one reference first image, and wherein the at least one second image is a subsampled full-field image that is subsampled based on a subset of pixel locations of the first image; and

using a computer hardware arrangement, determining the motion based on a comparison of the first and second images.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the anatomical structure is an eye, and further comprising determining the motion of the at least one portion of the eye.

18. The method according to claim 16, further comprising generating a plurality of the at least one second images, and wherein the computer hardware arrangement is further configured to determine the motion based on the comparison between the first image and each of the plurality of the at least one second images.

19. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

(i) forwarding a particular electromagnetic radiation to the at least one portion using a digital micromirror device (DMD),

(ii) forwarding the particular electromagnetic radiation from a polarizer to the at least one portion, wherein the plurality of electromagnetic radiations are associated with the particular electromagnetic radiation, or

(iii) providing the electromagnetic radiations from the at least one portion using the DMD.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein simultaneously detecting the plurality of electromagnetic radiations further comprises:

simultaneously detecting, using a camera, the plurality of electromagnetic radiations, and

wherein the method further comprises;

forwarding, using a digital micromirror device (DMD), a particular electromagnetic radiation to the at least one portion, and

providing, using the DMD, the plurality of electromagnetic radiations from the multiple points within the at least one portion to the camera.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein generating the at least one second image further comprises:

generating the at least one second image by activating a first plurality of mirror elements of the array of the DMD and inactivating a second plurality of mirror elements of the array of the DMD, different from the first plurality of mirror elements, and

wherein the subset of pixel locations for the at least one second image corresponds to the first plurality of mirror elements.

22. The method according to claim 16, further comprising adjusting at least one component of at least one of optical component of mechanical components thereof based on the motion.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising:

adjusting the at least one component to provide at least one further signal, and

generating a stabilized image of at least one of (i) the at least one portion, or (ii) at least one further portion of the anatomical structure based on the at least one further signal.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

causing a generation of a further reference image based on the stabilized image, and

determining the motion based on the comparison between the further reference image and the at least one second image.