Polarized material inspection apparatus
First Claim
1. An apparatus for material inspection comprising:
- an illuminator, said illuminator comprising a housing, said housing forming an optical path and housing a plurality of illuminator elements, said illuminator elements comprising a light source, a first polarizing means having a first plane of polarization, a lens, an aperture, an optical filter;
a means for supporting said illuminator in a preferred orientation; and
a viewing means, said viewing means comprising a second polarizing means having a second plane of polarization, wherein said first and second polarizing means are rotationally positionable with respect to each other such that their respective planes of polarization may be aligned in either a parallel or orthogonal relationship and wherein said means for supporting said housing comprises a headgear system, which allows said illuminator to be worn on the head of a user of the apparatus.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Light reflected from skin has two components: regular reflectance, or "glare" arising from the surface, and light backscattered from within the tissue. The regular reflectance contains the visual cues related to surface texture, whereas the backscattered component contains the cues related to pigmentation, erythema, infiltrates, vessels and other intracutaneous structures. Unlike the backscattered component, regular reflectance preserves the plane of polarization of polarized incident light. Thus, viewing skin through a linear polarizer, under linearly polarized illumination, separates the two components of tissue reflectance. When the planes of polarization are parallel, images with enhanced surface detail are obtained. When the planes are orthogonal, wrinkles and surface detail disappear, and an enhanced view of vasculature and pigmented lesions is obtained. Apparatus for performing such inspection is disclosed.
144 Citations
7 Claims
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1. An apparatus for material inspection comprising:
- an illuminator, said illuminator comprising a housing, said housing forming an optical path and housing a plurality of illuminator elements, said illuminator elements comprising a light source, a first polarizing means having a first plane of polarization, a lens, an aperture, an optical filter;
a means for supporting said illuminator in a preferred orientation; and
a viewing means, said viewing means comprising a second polarizing means having a second plane of polarization, wherein said first and second polarizing means are rotationally positionable with respect to each other such that their respective planes of polarization may be aligned in either a parallel or orthogonal relationship and wherein said means for supporting said housing comprises a headgear system, which allows said illuminator to be worn on the head of a user of the apparatus. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- an illuminator, said illuminator comprising a housing, said housing forming an optical path and housing a plurality of illuminator elements, said illuminator elements comprising a light source, a first polarizing means having a first plane of polarization, a lens, an aperture, an optical filter;
Specification
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- Resources
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Current AssigneeSyris Scientific, LLC
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Original AssigneeSeymour Light, Inc.
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InventorsFarinelli, William A., Kollias, Nikiforos, Anderson, Richard Rox
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Primary Examiner(s)EVANS, FANNIE L
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Application NumberUS08/634,311Time in Patent Office735 DaysField of Search356/364, 356/366, 356/367, 356/369, 250/225US Class Current356/364CPC Class CodesA61B 5/14558 by polarisationA61B 5/442 Evaluating skin mechanical ...
