VisionQuest and it collaborators have launched a program to develop a low-cost clinical device for high resolution imaging of the human retina. One technical goal is to give this low-cost camera a factor of five or more improvement in resolution as compared to existing clinical instruments; and, will be priced significantly below that of today’s adaptive optics devices.
A low-cost means for removing low-order aberrations, focus and astigmatism has been demonstrated. Our current efforts are to integrate the low-cost low-order aberrations compensator into a scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO). This integrated retinal imager and aberrometer-optical system for auto-correction (AOSA) of will produce retinal and optic disc images that have up to five times better resolution when compared to today’s commercial fundus cameras.
Researchers have sought to gain greater insight into the mechanisms of the retina and the optic disc at high spatial resolutions that would enable the visualization of structures (less than 10 micrometers) such as capillaries and nerve fiber bundles. Major sources of retinal image quality degradation are aberrations within the human eye. The presence of these ocular aberrations, many of them random and non deterministic, limits the achievable resolution and the contrast of small image details due to diffraction effects. To overcome these fundamental limitations, researchers have been applying adaptive optics (AO) techniques to correct for the aberrations. Today, deformable mirror based adaptive optics devices have been developed to overcome the limitations of standard fundus cameras, but at prices in excess of $500,000.
The device proposed by VisionQuest addresses the same goals as the above research grade adaptive optics instruments but does so in a manner which will ultimately be better suited for clinical use because of its similarity to current retinal photographic techniques and its lower cost technology. Our proposed device avoids the high costs, complexity, and limited FOV by adopting unique and notably less expensive wavefront measurement and aberration correction techniques. VisionQuest’s goal is to demonstrate an advanced imaging technology that introduces an effective and low cost alternative to adaptive optics for integration into today’s retinal cameras. Our system is not a replacement for AO systems, rather it address the needs of the clinician for a low-cost camera with significantly higher resolution, translating into significantly better quality in the retinal images.
