System, method and apparatus for enabling corneal topography mapping by smartphone

1. An apparatus for enabling corneal topography, comprising:

an attachment to align a placido disc illumination system with a camera of a mobile communication device, the placido disc illumination system to generate concentric rings, and reflect the concentric rings off a cornea, a portion of the reflected concentric rings being utilized to confirm vertex distance; and

the mobile communication device to comprise a memory, a processor, the camera and computer-readable instructions,

the camera to capture an image of the reflected concentric ring;

the computer-readable instructions being executable by the processor to:

calculate image quality of the captured image and generate related measurements; and

communicate the captured image and the related measurements to a cloud-based server via a wireless communication network if the image quality is greater than a defined threshold, the cloud-based server to analyze the captured image and generate a corneal topography map.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising the computer-readable instructions loaded into the memory and executable by a processor to receive an indication of a correct vertex distance and capture the image of the reflected concentric rings if the indication is received.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a specific concentric image is displayed when the cornea is at a desired vertex distance and wherein different concentric ring images identify the cornea being closer than or further away from the desired vertex distance.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , the external computing device to analyze the captured image and to generate additional clinical interpretations.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the external computing device to comprise computer-readable instructions loaded into the memory and executable by the processor to calculate/compute a vertex distance.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , the mobile communication device to receive the generated corneal topography map from the cloud-based server via the wireless communication network.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , the mobile communication device further comprising a gyroscope, the gyroscope generating rotational information and/or vertical information, the computer-readable instructions executable by the processor to receive the rotational information and/or vertical information of the mobile communication device and assess the mobile communication device's position with respect to a true vertical position.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a lighting source, the lighting source to illuminate the placido disc illumination system to assist in generating the projected concentric rings image.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a mounting assembly, the mounting assembly to mount the attachment and/or mobile communication device on a slit-lamp microscope to enable comfortable positioning of the apparatus in front of a seated subject.

10. An apparatus for enabling corneal topography, comprising:

an attachment to align a placido disc illumination system with a camera of a mobile communication device, the placido disc illumination system to generate concentric rings, and reflect the concentric rings off a cornea, a portion of the reflected concentric rings being utilized to confirm vertex distance; and

the mobile communication device to comprise a memory, a processor, the camera and computer-readable instructions,

the camera to capture an image of the reflected concentric ring:

the computer-readable instructions being executable by the processor to:

calculate image quality of the captured image and generate related measurements of the captured image; and

communicate the captured image and the related measurements of the reflected concentric rings to a cloud-based server via a wireless communication network if the image quality is greater than a defined threshold, the cloud-based server to analyze the captured image and generate a corneal topography map,

the cloud-based server to communicate the corneal topography map and/or additional clinical interpretations to one or more of a remote computing device, a medical records repository computing device, an email server for a registered user and/or consulting specialist, a medical billing computing device, a second computing device comprising computer-readable instructions executable by a processor to perform additional analysis (intra-ocular lens (“IOL”) power calculation), or a desktop computing device.

11. A method for performing corneal topography utilizing a mobile communication device, comprising:

illuminating a placido disk illumination system;

projecting, utilizing the placido disk illumination system, a plurality of concentric rings onto a subject's cornea;

capturing, via a camera of the mobile communication device, an image of the plurality of reflected concentric rings;

executing, by a processor, computer-readable instructions stored in a memory of a mobile communication device, the executable computer-readable instructions to:

calculate image quality of the captured image and generate related measurements of the captured image; and

communicate the captured image and the related measurements of the reflected concentric rings to a cloud-based server via a wireless communication network if the image quality is greater than a defined threshold.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising

generating, by a gyroscope in the mobile communications device, rotational information and vertical information; and

the computer-readable instructions executable by the processor to receive the rotational information and the vertical information of the mobile communications device and assess the mobile communication device's position with respect to a true vertical position.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving a computed cornea topography map from the cloud-based server via the wireless communication network.