Apparatus for corneal shape analysis and method for determining a corneal thickness

1. A method of determining a corneal thickness comprising the steps of:

illuminating a cornea by a plurality of stimulator point light sources arranged along a plurality of concentric diameters, with no two stimulator point light sources being diametrically opposed,

capturing an image of the cornea comprising reflected images of the stimulator point light sources,

obtaining a model representing an anterior surface of the cornea,

constructing a second model representing a posterior surface of the cornea from the image by ray-tracing the reflected images of the stimulator point light sources towards the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea, and

determining the corneal thickness from the model representing the anterior surface and the second model representing the posterior surface.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the reflected images of the stimulator point light sources comprise first and second Purkinje images.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the step of constructing the second model representing the posterior surface comprises:

for one or more of the stimulator point light sources:

constructing a first ray originating from the stimulator point light source towards the cornea,

determining a first intersection point as the intersection of the first ray with the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea,

construct a second ray originating from the second Purkinje image of the stimulator point light source towards the cornea,

determining a second intersection point as the intersection of the second ray with the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea,

constructing a first refracted ray from the first ray into the cornea originating from the first intersection point, using Snell's Law,

constructing a second refracted ray from the second ray into the cornea originating from the second intersection point, using Snell's Law, and

determining a point on the posterior surface as the intersection of the first and second refracted ray.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the reflected images of the stimulator point light sources comprise second Purkinje images.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the step of constructing the second model representing the posterior surface comprises:

for one or more of the stimulator point light sources:

constructing a first ray originating from the stimulator point light source towards the cornea,

determining a first intersection point as the intersection of the first ray with the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea,

constructing a second ray originating from the second Purkinje image of the stimulator point towards the cornea,

determining a second intersection point as the intersection of the second ray with the model representing anterior surface of the cornea,

constructing a first refracted ray from the first ray into the cornea originating from the first intersection point, using Snell's Law,

constructing a second refracted ray from the second ray into the cornea originating from the second intersection point, using Snell's Law, and

determining a point on the posterior surface as the intersection of the first and second refracted ray.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the model of the anterior surface of the cornea is determined using a corneal topographer.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea is obtained by:

capturing a corneal image obtained by illuminating the cornea with a stimulator source,

using ray-tracing to determine a point of reflection of the stimulator source on the anterior surface, and

performing a fitting algorithm of the point of reflection to a mathematical model to obtain the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the image of the cornea is used as the corneal image.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the corneal image is obtained by illuminating the cornea by the plurality of stimulator point light sources with a lower illumination level as the image of the cornea.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein a toric aspheric model is used as the model representing the anterior surface.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein the model representing the anterior surface comprises a plurality of Zernike polynomials.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of stimulator point light sources arranged along a plurality of concentric diameters is circumferentially offset from a nearest point light source on an adjacent diameter.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of stimulator point light sources arranged along a plurality of concentric diameters is circumferentially offset substantially equidistant to either side from a nearest point light source arranged on its own diameter.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of stimulator point light sources comprises an odd number of stimulator point light sources arranged along each concentric diameter.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of stimulator point light sources are distributed substantially equally among the plurality of concentric diameters.

16. An apparatus for corneal shape analysis comprising

a plurality of stimulator point light sources arranged along a plurality of concentric diameters, with no two stimulator point light sources being diametrically opposed, for, in use, illuminating a cornea of an eye,

a camera system for capturing reflected images of the stimulator point light sources,

a computational unit for, in use, performing the following steps

obtaining a model of an anterior surface of the cornea,

constructing a second model representing the posterior surface of the cornea by ray-tracing the reflected images of the stimulator point light sources towards the model representing the anterior surface of the cornea and

determining a corneal thickness from the model representing the anterior surface and the second model representing the posterior surface.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16 wherein the camera system is arranged to capture a first image comprising reflected images of the stimulator point light sources and to capture a second image comprising reflected images of the stimulator point light sources, the computational unit further being arranged to, in use,

obtain the model of an anterior surface of the cornea using the first image and

construct the second model representing the posterior surface using the second image.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the apparatus further comprises a control unit for setting an illumination level of the stimulator point light sources thereby enabling the first and second image to be captured with a different illumination level.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18 , wherein the control unit is further arranged to selectively enable the stimulator point light sources.

20. The apparatus according to claim 18 , the apparatus further being arranged to compare a position of iris features on the first and second image in order to determine the presence or absence of substantial eye movements.

21. The apparatus according to claim 16 wherein the stimulator point light sources comprise a LED or a laser diode.

22. The apparatus according to claim 16 wherein the stimulator point light sources originate from a collimated light source.

23. The apparatus according to claim 16 wherein the plurality of stimulator point light sources are distributed along one or more concentric circles.

24. The apparatus according to claim 23 wherein each circle comprises an evenly distributed odd number of stimulator point light sources.

25. The method according to claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of stimulator point light sources arranged along a plurality of concentric diameters is circumferentially offset from a nearest point light source on an adjacent diameter.

26. The method according to claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of stimulator point light sources arranged along a plurality of concentric diameters is circumferentially offset substantially equidistant to either side from a nearest point light source arranged on its own diameter.

27. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the plurality of stimulator point light sources comprises an odd number of stimulator point light sources arranged along each concentric diameter.

28. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the plurality of stimulator point light sources are distributed substantially equally among the plurality of concentric diameters.