Patent ID: 7805009
Filing Date: 2010-09-28
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A method of monitoring the movement of an eye of a patient in order to facilitate the alignment of a beam of radiation with respect to the eye, said beam being generated by a light source and directed to the eye via a scanner, said method comprising the steps of: generating a two dimensional reference image of the eye; scanning a line of imaging light across the eye and collecting reflected image data to generate a second two dimensional image; during a scanning step, comparing a portion of the second image to the reference image to identify a substantially matching image portion, wherein the comparison step is performed by selecting portions of the reference image which have scan coordinates that are displaced in the plane of the image relative to the selected portion of the second image; determining a displacement between the scan coordinates associated with the matched image portions, said displacement corresponding to the motion of the eye; and correcting the alignment of the beam of radiation with respect to the eye using the scanner based on the determined displacement.