Patent ID: 9642520
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: A61B,G06T

Claim:
1. An apparatus for imaging an ocular tear film of an eye, comprising: an imaging device platform for mounting an imaging device along an imaging axis; a light source attached to the imaging device platform and arranged to direct a light at an illumination angle that is off axis relative to the imaging axis to avoid projecting light directly into a pupil of an eye, the light including unpolarized light having a first intensity in an illumination path to illuminate a region of interest (ROI) of an ocular tear film, thereby producing a specularly reflected light in a first polarization plane containing optical wave interference from the ROI of the ocular tear film; a polarizer disposed in the illumination path having a polarization axis parallel or substantially parallel to the first polarization plane of the specularly reflected light such that a background signal comprised of the unpolarized light returned from the ROI of the ocular tear film has a second intensity less than the first intensity; and an imaging device attached to the imaging device platform and configured to capture the optical wave interference of the specularly reflected light and the background signal from the ROI of the ocular tear film.