Patent ID: 7419485

Claim:
A system for treating a cornea of a patient's eye with a laser beam, the eye having a refractive defect, wherein a desired refractive correcting shape mitigates the refractive defect, the system comprising: a laser emitting a beam of an ablative light energy; and at least one processor coupled to the laser beam and having a computer program, the computer program embodying instructions for: mapping angles between a surface of the cornea and the laser beam over a treatment area; determining local ablation properties at a plurality of locations within the treatment area of the cornea in response to the angles; defining a first virtual ablation shape and a second virtual ablation shape, the first virtual shape representing a shape of ablation stored in a memory of the processor including depth of material to be removed from the treatment area to form a desired refractive correcting shape, the second virtual shape being formed from the first virtual shape by modifying the first virtual shape by adjusting the depth of material to be removed from the first virtual shape at the plurality of locations within the treatment area in response to the local ablation properties; calculating a treatment plan from the second virtual shape, the treatment plan comprising a plurality of laser beam locations within the treatment area identified using the second virtual shape; and controlling an ablative treatment using the treatment plan from the second virtual shape so that the treatment forms the desired refractive correcting shape in the surface.