Patent ID: 7224822

Claim:
A system for capturing an image of a retina of an eye for identification comprising: a source of illumination light; a lens through which the illumination light passes to illuminate the retina, the lens receiving light reflected from the retina; an image signal generator responsive to light reflected from the retina to generate a signal representing an image of an illuminated area of the retina; and an alignment system to align the eye along an axis that is at a predetermined angle with respect to a centerline of the lens, the alignment system including an elongated straight channel having an end into which a user looks, the longitudinal axis of the channel being the axis along which the eye is aligned and an object being disposed in the channel at a distance from the end into which the user looks wherein the aspect ratio of the diameter of the channel to the length of the channel from the location of the object to the end into which the user looks is such that the object is viewable when the eye is aligned along the longitudinal axis and is not viewable when the eye is not aligned along the longitudinal axis, and the system including an ultrasound transducer, and the system being responsive to the transducer to determine when the eye is at a predetermined distance from the image capturing system and providing an indication to the user when the eye is at the predetermined distance.