Granted Patent B2

US 12,433,483 · App. 17/344,838 · Granted Oct 7, 2025

Inventors: Yaolong Lou (Singapore, SG); Yuan Ing Chow (Singapore, SG); Shadakshari Devarajaiah Chikkanaravangala (Singapore, SG)

Assignee: Welch Allyn, Inc.

A61B3/103A61B3/0025A61B3/14G16H30/40

Abstract

Claims (96)

1. A system, comprising:

memory;

one or more processors; and

computer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

causing an eccentric radiation source to generate one or more beams of near infrared (NIR) radiation that are directed onto a retina of a patient;

causing a radiation sensor to collect information indicative of reflected NIR radiation from the retina, and to generate an analysis image based at least in part on the information;

identifying, based at least in part on the analysis image, a pupil of the patient;

determining a focus state of the analysis image;

determining that the focus state of the analysis image satisfies a set of image state thresholds;

based at least in part on determining that the focus state of the analysis image satisfies the set of image state thresholds, causing an image capture device to capture a plurality of images of the pupil;

identifying a subset of the plurality of images that satisfy the set of image state thresholds;

determining, based at least in part on the subset of the plurality of images,

a plurality of pupil positions, and

one or more radiation intensity profiles associated with the reflected NIR radiation detected by the radiation sensor; and

determining a refractive error of the patient based at least in part on the plurality of pupil positions and the one or more radiation intensity profiles.

2. The system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:

causing the eccentric radiation source to generate one or more beams of visible light that are directed onto the retina of the patient; and

causing the radiation sensor to collect additional information indicative of reflected visible light from the retina.

3. The system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:

causing the eccentric radiation source to activate a first set of radiation point sources, wherein the first set of radiation point sources is comprised of one or more first radiation point sources disposed at a first radial distance from the radiation sensor;

causing the image capture device to capture a first image of the plurality of images, wherein the first image depicts the retina illuminated by the first set of radiation point sources;

causing the eccentric radiation source to activate a second set of radiation point sources, wherein the second set of radiation point sources is comprised of one or more second radiation point sources disposed at a second radial distance, greater than the first radial distance; and

causing the image capture device to capture a second image of the plurality of images, wherein the second image depicts the retina illuminated by the second set of radiation point sources.

4. The system of claim 3 , the operations further comprising:

causing the image capture device to capture a third image of the plurality of images, wherein the third image depicts the retina illuminated by a third set of radiation point sources disposed at a third radial distance from the radiation sensor;

causing the image capture device to capture a fourth image of the plurality of images, wherein the fourth image depicts the retina illuminated by a fourth set of radiation point sources disposed at a fourth radial distance from the radiation sensor, and

wherein:

the third radial distance is less than the first radial distance, and

the fourth radial distance is greater than the first radial distance and less than the second radial distance.

5. The system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:

causing the eccentric radiation source to activate one or more first radiation point sources linearly extending from the radiation sensor at a first rotational offset;

causing the image capture device to capture a first image of the plurality of images, wherein the first image depicts the retina illuminated by the one or more first radiation point sources;

causing the eccentric radiation source to activate one or more second radiation point sources linearly extending from the radiation sensor at a second rotational offset; and

causing the image capture device to capture a second image of the plurality of images, wherein the second image depicts the retina illuminated by the one or more second radiation point sources.

6. The system of claim 5 , the operations further comprising:

causing the eccentric radiation source to activate one or more third radiation point sources of a first meridian;

causing the image capture device to capture a third image of the plurality of images, wherein the third image depicts the retina illuminated by the one or more third radiation point sources;

causing the eccentric radiation source to activate one or more fourth radiation point sources of a second meridian; and

causing the image capture device to capture a fourth image of the plurality of images, wherein the fourth image depicts the retina illuminated by the one or more fourth radiation point sources.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining a refractive error of the patient further comprises:

generating, based at least on the one or more radiation intensity profiles, a linear function fitted to the one or more radiation intensity profiles; and

determining, based at least on the linear function, at least one of a sphere (Ds), a cylinder (Dc), or an axis (Ax) of the cylinder for the patient.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein determining the refractive error of the patient further comprises:

determining, based at least on the linear function, a spherical error (SE) slope associated with the linear function; and

determining, based at least on the SE slope, the refractive error of the patient, wherein the refractive error is determined by a neural network algorithm trained to identify correlations between one or more active radiation point sources and the one or more radiation intensity profiles to determine the refractive error for the patient.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the pupil of the patient further comprises:

determining at least a pupil position, a pupil diameter, and an inner pupil distance for one or more detected pupils; and

determining at least a glint position, a glint intensity, and an image contrast for the one or more detected pupils.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein

determining that the focus state of the analysis image satisfies the set of image state thresholds comprises:

determining the pupil diameter satisfies a pupil diameter threshold,

determining the inner pupil distance satisfies a pupil distance threshold,

determining the glint intensity satisfies a glint intensity threshold, and

determining the image contrast satisfies an image contrast threshold; and

identifying the subset of the plurality of images comprises determining that each image in the subset of the plurality of images satisfies the pupil diameter threshold, the pupil distance threshold, the glint intensity threshold, and the image contrast threshold.

11. The system of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:

generating a recommendation to increase the distance between the patient and the radiation sensor based at least in part on the pupil diameter or the pupil inner distance exceeding an image state threshold of the set of image state thresholds; and

displaying the recommendation via a user interface.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of pupil positions further comprises:

determining, for a first image of the plurality of images, a first pupil position associated with the first image;

identifying, for a second image of the plurality of images, a region of interest for the second images based at least on the first pupil position determined for the first image; and

determining, based at least on the region of interest, a second pupil position associated with the second image,

wherein, a preceding pupil position from a preceding image is utilized to determine a successive region of interest associated with a successive image of the plurality of images such that a success pupil position is determined from the successive region of interest.

13. A system, comprising:

memory;

one or more processors; and

computer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

causing an eccentric radiation source, operably connected to the processor, to generate radiation that illuminates a pupil and a retina of a patient;

causing a radiation sensor, operably connected to the processor, to collect reflected radiation from the pupil and the retina of the patient, and to generate an analysis image based at least in part on the collected radiation;

determining a focus state of the analysis image;

determining that the focus state of the analysis image satisfies a set of image state thresholds;

based at least in part on determining that focus state of the analysis image satisfies the set of image state thresholds, causing the radiation sensor to capture a series of images;

identifying a subset of the series of images that satisfy the set of image state thresholds;

determining, based at least in part on the subset of the series of images, one or more parameters associated with a detected pupil;

generating a series of normalized images based at least in part on the subset of the series of images and the one or more parameters; and

determine a refractive error for the patient based at least in part on the series of normalized images.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more parameters associated with the detected pupil comprise at least one of:

a gaze deviation associated with an offset of the detected pupil associated with a direction of view for the patient;

a glint position associated with the detected pupil;

a Gaussian filter configured to smooth a plurality of intensity readings associated with the detected pupil; or

a rotational correction associated with at least the eccentric radiation source.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein determining the refractive error further comprises:

extracting, for each normalized image of the series of normalized images, an intensity profile;

determining, based at least in part on the intensity profile, spherical error data for the patient; and

determining, based at least in part on the spherical error data, the refractive error for the patient.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein determining refractive error further comprises determining, based at least in part on the spherical error data, refractive error parameters associated with one or more meridians of the eccentric radiation source.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the eccentric radiation source comprises a first plurality of radiation sources and a second plurality of radiation sources,

a lens of the radiation sensor is disposed substantially centrally between the first plurality of radiation sources and the second plurality of radiation sources, and

causing the image capture device to capture the plurality of images comprises maintaining the lens at a substantially stationary position, relative to the patient, while the plurality of images is captured.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors comprises a first processor operably connected to the eccentric radiation source, and a second processor of a handheld user device,

the second processor being configured to synchronize capture of the plurality of images by the image capture device with illumination of the pupil by the eccentric radiations source.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the image capture device, the eccentric radiation source, and the radiation sensor are supported by a housing of the system;

a first image included in the plurality of images is captured using illumination emitted by a first radiation source of the system disposed at a first location on the housing, and

a second image included in the plurality of images is captured using illumination emitted by a second radiation source of the system different from the first radiation source, the second radiation source being disposed at a second location on the housing different from the first location.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (63)