Patent ID: 8317701

Claim:
A device for use in non-invasive measurement of a patient's intra-ocular pressure (IOP), the device comprising: a probe unit having a flexible membrane which is to be brought into contact with a patient's eyelid when the device is put in operation enabling a non-invasive measurement of a patient's intra-ocular pressure (IOP), wherein at least a contacting region of the membrane is deformable, by applied force, between a first curved shape thereof matching a geometry of an external surface of the eyelid defined by the shape of the patient's cornea and a second shape corresponding to a condition of applanation of a desired area of the contacting region, said desired area being of a size corresponding to desirable deformation of a specific area of the cornea; said flexible membrane has an inner surface at said contacting region responding to incident light by reflection and/or fluorescence, to reflect or emit a light image pattern, wherein a change in the condition of applanation of the desired area of the contacting region causes a change in said light image pattern; deformation of the membrane, while being illuminated by incident light and when the force is applied to the membrane against the eyelid, results in the change in condition of applanation effecting a change in the light image pattern from the membrane; an optical system configured for directing illuminating light towards said inner surface of the contacting region of the membrane, detecting said light image pattern from the illuminated membrane region, and generating data indicative of the detected light image pattern, and, a control unit connectable to the output of the optical system and configured to apply signal processing to the output data for analyzing said data indicative of the detected light image pattern to detect when said detected light image pattern corresponds to a reference pattern to identify the applanation area of the contacting region of the membrane and therefore of a flattened surface area of the cornea allowing the IOP measurement upon identifying said area; the probe being configured to enable controllably varying application of the force to the membrane against the eyelid.