Patent ID: 8647264

Claim:
A medical diagnostic system, comprising: an otoscope configured to generate at least a first image of a tympanic membrane of a patient; and an apparatus for diagnosing acute otitis media within the patient, said apparatus comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code comprising: first computer-readable program code for evaluating the at least a first image of the tympanic membrane of the patient relative to a second image of the patient taken under conditions when the patient was free of acute otitis media, to thereby detect indicia of acute otitis media in the patient; wherein said otoscope is further configured to capture a plurality of ring-shaped images of portions of the tympanic membrane of the patient that are focused at respective points on the tympanic membrane, which are located at different planes of focus relative to said otoscope; and wherein said computer-readable program code further comprises second computer-readable program code for generating a first topographical map of the tympanic membrane of the patient from the plurality of ring-shaped images by evaluating a change in distance between a first one of the plurality of ring-shaped images of the tympanic membrane at a first plane of focus and another image of at least a portion of the tympanic membrane at a second plane of focus, relative to said otoscope.