Patent ID: 7286227

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for analyzing the birefringence of a retinal structure of an eye having an anterior segment and a pupil, the method comprising the steps of (a) producing a first polarimetric image of the retinal structure having a plurality of pixels {S(δ T , θ T )} each representing a measured retardance magnitude δ T and orientation angle θ T ; (b) determining the fast axes of the pixel retardance angles {θ T } corresponding to a biological feature of the retinal structure in the first polarimetric image; (c) determining anterior segment retardance magnitude δ C and orientation θ C values corresponding to the variation of the retardance magnitude δ T over an annular region of the first polarimetric image; and (d) computing a second polarimetric image of the retinal structure having a plurality of pixels {S(δ N , θ N )} each corresponding to a first polarimetric image pixel S(δ T , θ T ) from which the effects of the anterior segment retardance are removed.