Patent ID: 6890076

Claim:
A method of imaging an area of a retina of a living eye, the method comprising: (a) providing light from a light source; (b) injecting the light from the light source into a common optical path; (c) performing a two-dimensional transverse scan of a focused spot of the light from the light source on the area of the retina; (d) receiving light reflected from the focused spot on the retina back into the common optical path; (e) from a first portion of the light reflected from the retina, detecting a wavefront aberration of the eye; (f) disposing an adaptive optical element in the common optical path between the light source and the eye; (g) controlling the adaptive optical element to compensate for the wavefront aberration in the light scanned on the area of the retina to project the focused spot onto the retina; (h) controlling the adaptive optical element to compensate for the wavefront aberration in the light reflected from the focused spot on the retina back into the common optical path; and (i) from a second portion of the light reflected from the retina, producing an image of the area of the retina.