Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method of setting an output level of a light delivery device (10) that comprises light-emitting means (12), light output means (24; 24, 26) for delivering emitted light to a site to be irradiated, intensity control means (16) for adjusting at least the intensity of the delivered light, and a memory unit (30) for storing data including parameters indicative of intensity/power level, the light output means (24;24,26) being temporarily connected to a separate radiometer (38) having means for detecting power levels of the delivered light, the light delivery device (10) and the radiometer (38) having respective control means (28,48) and data communications means (34,36,54,56) for communicating data therebetween, the method comprising a calibration sequence comprising the steps of:(i) with the light output means (24;24,26) coupled to the radiometer (38), establishing data communications between the control means (48) of the radiometer (38) and the control means (28) of the light delivery device (10);at the light delivery device (10):(ii) adjusting the intensity control means (16) successively to each of a series of predetermined intensity levels;at the radiometer (38):(iii) measuring a series of actual output irradiance levels delivered by the light output means (24;24,26), each for a respective one of said predetermined intensity levels;(iv) transmitting the actual output irradiance levels to the light delivery device (10);at the light delivery device (10):(v) associating each of the actual output irradiance level measurements with the corresponding intensity level parameters in said memory unit. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of adjusting the intensity control means (16) successively to each of a series of predetermined intensity levels comprises setting a variable aperture unit (18) of the intensity control means (16) to each of a series of different aperture openings. 3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of;(vi) applying a best fit algorithm to the actual irradiance level measurements and corresponding predetermined intensity level parameters and using the best fit parameters to select subsequent desired output irradiance levels. 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein, in a subsequent step of setting the light delivery device (10) to deliver a desired output irradiance level, the intensity level of light downstream of the output of the intensity control means (16) is measured, compared with a reference, and the intensity control means (16) adjusted to correct for any differences between the measured intensity level and the reference. 5. A method according to claim 3, further comprising the steps of;obtaining, for each of said series of predetermined intensity level parameters, a corresponding series of measurements of intensity level of light downstream of the output of the intensity control means (16),applying a best fit algorithm to the actual irradiance level measurements and corresponding parameters;applying a best fit algorithm to the actual intensity level measurements and said actual irradiance level measurements;in a subsequent intensity level setting step, setting the intensity level to the desired setting, measuring the said actual intensity level again, comparing the measured-again intensity level with the intensity level for that desired irradiance level according to the best fit algorithm, and adjusting the intensity control means (18) to correct for any differences. 6. A method according to claim 1, wherein, when establishing communications, the radiometer (38) acquires from the light delivery device (10) a unique identifier, such as its serial number, and stores the irradiance measurements in association with said unique identifier in a memory unit (50). 7. A method according to claim 6, wherein each of the irradiance measurements is stored in association with temporal information identifying when such measurement was made. 8. A method according to claim 1, the light output means comprising a light guide (26) coupled to an optical output port (24) of the light delivery device (10), the method further comprising the step of determining the diameter of the light guide (26) and using the measured power and the effective cross-sectional area, derived from the diameter, to compute the irradiance of the delivered light. 9. A method according to claim 7, wherein the computation of the irradiance is performed at the radiometer (38). 10. A method according to claim 8, wherein the radiometer (38) stores effective diameters of a plurality of different types of light delivery means, the light delivery means of a particular type having the same effective cross-sectional area, and being associated with an indicator unique to that type, and the step of determining the effective cross-sectional area includes the steps of detecting a said unique indicator of said light delivery means connected to the optical input port, using the detected indicator to retrieve the effective diameter for that light delivery means from storage and calculating the cross-sectional area from that effective diameter. 11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the unique indicator is colour of a colour-coded adapter (42) specific to the type of light delivery means (26) and the step of detecting said unique indicator includes the step of determining the colour of the colour-coded adapter (40) connecting the light delivery means (26) to the optical input port (40). 12. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of repeating the calibration sequence for each of a plurality of other similar light delivery devices (10) and setting the plurality of other similar light delivery devices to the same output level by coupling the radiometer (38) to each of the light delivery devices (10) in turn, outputting from the radiometer (38) to the control means (28) of the light delivery device (10) a desired irradiance value previously stored in the radiometer (38); and storing the light irradiance value in the memory (30) of the light delivery device (10), each light delivery device (10) using the stored irradiance value for subsequent operation. 13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the desired irradiance is obtained by the prior step of measuring an actual irradiance level outputted by one of the light delivery devices, or a similar light delivery device, manually adjusting the light delivery device until the actual irradiance level is acceptable, and storing the accepted irradiance level as said desired irradiance level for supplying to the other light delivery devices. 14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data communications link is established by way of wireless input/output ports of the light delivery device (10) and radiometer (38), respectively. 15. A method of setting respective output light irradiance levels of a plurality of light delivery devices to the same irradiance level using the same radiometer, each light delivery device comprising light-emitting means, output means for supplying the emitted light to a site to be irradiated, intensity control means (16) for adjusting at least the intensity of the delivered light, a memory unit for storing parameters indicative of intensity levels and control means for controlling the intensity control means, the radiometer having data storage means for storing data including light irradiance values, the radiometer and light delivery devices having data communications means for communicating data therebetween, the method comprising the steps of:(i) manually adjusting a first light delivery device to deliver a desired irradiance level at its output means;(ii) temporarily coupling the radiometer to the output means of the first light delivery device and measuring said desired irradiance level;(iii) storing said desired irradiance level in the memory of the radiometer;(iv) temporarily coupling the radiometer to the output means of at least a second such light delivery device, and transmitting said desired irradiance level to said second delivery device via said data communications means; and(v) storing the light irradiance value in the memory of the second light delivery device for future use in normal operation. 16. A method according to claim 14, further comprising the prior step of calibrating each of the light delivery devices with the radiometer (38) so that irradiance levels correspond to aperture settings. 17. A method according to claim 15, wherein the data communications link is established by way of wireless input/output ports of each light delivery device and the radiometer (38), respectively. 18. A method of setting respective output light irradiance levels of a plurality of light delivery devices (10) to the same irradiance level using the same radiometer (38), each light delivery device (10) comprising light-emitting means (12), output means (24; 24, 26) for supplying the emitted light to a site to be irradiated, intensity control means (16) for adjusting the irradiance of the delivered light, a memory unit for storing irradiance levels, and control means (28) for controlling the intensity control means (18), the radiometer (38) having data storage means (50) for storing data including light irradiance values, the method comprising the steps of:temporarily coupling the radiometer (38) to the output means of each light delivery device in turn, and outputting to each said light delivery device a desired irradiance level previously stored in the memory of the radiometer (38); andstoring the light irradiance value in the memory unit of each said light delivery device (30) for future use in normal operation. 19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the radiometer is coupled to the light delivery device by means of a wireless data communications link. 20. A radiometer (38) for use in setting output light delivered by at least one light delivery device (10) to a desired light irradiance level, said at least one light delivery device comprising light emitting means (12), light output means (24; 24, 26) for supplying the emitted light to a site to be irradiated, intensity control means (16) for adjusting the irradiance of the delivered light, a memory unit for storing irradiance levels, and data communications means (28, 34, 36), the radiometer (38) comprising:means for measuring an irradiance level of light delivered by said light output means of said light delivery device;data communications means (48, 54, 56) complementary to the data communications means (28, 34, 36) of the light delivery device, andcontrol means (48) for establishing data communications with a light delivery device (10) coupled thereto and for outputting to said light delivery device (10) said desired light irradiance value from said memory via the data communications means. 21. A radiometer according to claim 20, further comprising storage means (50) for storing a plurality of said desired irradiance values in association with a unique identifier, for example serial number, of a said light delivery device (10), and wherein the control means is operable to obtain said unique identifier from said light delivery device via said data communications link. 22. A radiometer according to claim 20, further comprising data communication means for communicating stored data to an external computer. 23. A radiometer according to claim 20, wherein the data communications means is wireless. 24. A radiometer according to claim 20, further comprising means for detecting an identifier of a light output means connected thereto, said identifier indicating that the light output means has a particular diameter, the control means being operable to use the identifier to determine the cross-sectional area and use the cross-sectional area and measured power to compute the irradiance of the delivered light. 25. A radiometer according to claim 24, wherein the identifier is the colour of a colour-coded adapter for connecting the light output means to the radiometer, and the detecting means is configured to detect the colour of the adapter and supply colour coordinates to the control unit, the memory unit storing colours and corresponding diameters or areas of the light output means. 26. A radiometer according to claim 25, wherein the detecting means comprises a colorimeter. 27. A light delivery device comprising light-emitting means, light output means for delivering the emitted light to a site to be irradiated, intensity control means (16) for adjusting irradiance of delivered light; and control means for controlling the intensity control means and for communicating with an external radiometer, the control means being operable to adjust the intensity, successively, to a plurality of intensity levels and, for each intensity level, communicate with the radiometer to obtain from the radiometer a corresponding series of actual irradiance levels measured by the radiometer and store each irradiance value in a memory unit in association with the corresponding intensity level. 28. A light delivery device according to claim 27, wherein the intensity control means (16) comprises a variable aperture unit (18) for selecting each of a series of different aperture openings to set the intensity level, the stored parameters then comprising aperture settings. 29. A light delivery device according to claim 28, wherein the control means is operable to apply a best fit algorithm to the actual irradiance level measurements and corresponding aperture settings and use the best fit aperture settings to select subsequent desired output irradiance levels. 30. A light delivery device according to claim 28, further comprising means for measuring the intensity level of light downstream of the output of the intensity control means (16), the control means being operable to associate a series of intensity measurements with said series of irradiance measurements and, when subsequently setting the intensity of light outputted by the light delivery device (10) to deliver a desired output irradiance level, set the intensity to an initial setting corresponding to the desired irradiance level, measure the actual intensity level and compare such actual intensity level with the associated intensity level and adjust the intensity control means (16) to correct for any differences between the measured actual intensity level and the associated intensity level. 31. A light delivery device according to claim 30, further comprising means for measuring the intensity level of light downstream of the output of the intensity control means (16), the control means being operable to associate a series of intensity measurements with said series of irradiance measurements and perform a best fit algorithm to associate intensity measurements with irradiance measurements and, when subsequently setting the intensity control means of the light delivery device (10) to deliver a desired output irradiance level, set the intensity to an initial setting corresponding to the desired irradiance level, measure the actual intensity level and compare such actual intensity level with the associated intensity level and adjust the intensity control means (16) to correct for any differences between the measured actual intensity level and the associated intensity level. 32. A light delivery device according to claim 28, wherein the variable aperture means (18) is adjustable between a completely closed condition and a variety of open areas, the control means (28) being operable to switch the variable aperture means (18) from a closed state to a selected one of the open sizes, and back to the closed state to determine exposure period. 33. A light delivery device according to claim 28, wherein the control means compensates for aperture opening and closing delays when determining exposure times. 34. A light delivery device comprising light-emitting means (12), light output means (24; 24, 26) for delivering the emitted light to a site to be irradiated, intensity control means (16) for adjusting irradiance of delivered light, detection means for detecting intensity of light downstream of the output of the intensity control means and control means (28) for controlling the intensity control means (18), wherein the control means (28) is operable to:monitor the detection means and determine, for each of series of predetermined intensity level settings, a corresponding series of measurements of intensity level of light downstream of the output of the intensity control means (16),apply a best fit algorithm to the actual intensity level measurements and said intensity level settings; andin a subsequent intensity level setting step, adjust the intensity level to the desired setting, measure the said intensity level again, compare the measured-again intensity level with the intensity level for that intensity level setting according to the best fit algorithm, and adjust the intensity control means (16) to correct for any differences.