Patent Document ID: 6027216
Application ID: 09172842
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for assessing the fixation state of at least one eye, each eye having a corneal birefringence meridional direction, a fundus, a fovea having a projection, lutein pigment having a dichroic effect, and a fixation state, said apparatus comprising: a) an illumination system, comprising at least one light source, for providing at least one beam of incident light to each of said at least one eye; b) a detection system, synchronously operable with said illumination system and comprising at least one photodetector, each of said at least one photodetector comprising a detection surface, for detecting incident light reflected from the fundus of each of said at least one eye; and c) an analysis system, operably connected with both said illumination system and said detection system, for determining polarization-related changes that have occurred between the incident light and the reflected light and for assessing foveal projection information for each of said at least one eye from said polarization-related changes detected in the reflected light, wherein said foveal projection information indicates the fixation state of the eye, said fixation state of the eye varying from a fixated condition to a non-fixated condition.