Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Binocular Retinal Imaging Device, System, And Method For Tracking Fixational Eye Motion”, for Approval (USPTO 20240090764): Patent Application

2024 APR 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Helft, Zachary (Berkeley, CA, US); Ni, Yun Hui (Rochester, NY, US); Norton, Andrew (Woodside, CA, US); Page, Taylor (Suffield, CT, US); Sheehy, Christy (San Francisco, CA, US); Simonsen, Michael (Rochester, NY, US), filed on September 6, 2023, was made available online on March 21, 2024.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When a subject fixates upon a stationary reference point, the eyes of the subject are typically not stationary, but rather exhibit small jerk-like, involuntary motions known as microsaccades. Such motion, as well as other forms of motion that occur when the eyes of a subject are fixated upon a stationary reference point, may be referred to herein as “fixational eye motion.” One purpose of fixational eye motion is to move a stimulus projected onto the retinas over dozens to hundreds of photoreceptors of the subject’s eyes, helping the subject to better see the stimulus. See, e.g., Sheehy et al. “High-speed, image-based eye tracking with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope,” Biomed Optics Express, 2012 Oct. 1; 3(10): 2611-2622. Described herein are system and methods for measuring and analyzing the fixational eye motion of a subject.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a binocular retinal imaging system (which may be hereinafter referred to as a “binocular system”) is used to simultaneously record the fixational eye motion of both eyes of a subject. In a healthy subject, the fixational eye motion of the left and right eyes are substantially in sync (i.e., move in the same direction at the same time). However, in subjects with neurological and neurodegenerative conditions/diseases, the fixational eye motion of the left and right eyes may not always be in sync. For example, the speed of motion of one eye might be faster than the speed of the other eye, the motion of one eye might lag the motion of the other eye, etc.

“As such, recordings of the fixational eye motion of both eyes of a subject may be analyzed to, for example, diagnose, prognosticate, and monitor neurological and neurodegenerative conditions/diseases such as, for example, multiple sclerosis, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, concussion, Alzheimer’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and so on. Additionally, or alternatively, fixational eye motion may be analyzed in order to, for example, aid in diagnosis or diagnose whether or not a concussion or other traumatic brain injury traumatic brain injury has occurred and assess the severity of the injury as well as monitor recovery. In some instances, diagnosis of a medical condition may be facilitated by comparing the fixational eye motion of a subject’s left and right eye and analyzing differences therebetween (i.e., called a conjugacy comparison). The velocity, peak velocity, amplitude, waveforms, and patternistic properties of waveforms of the fixational eye motion may be analyzed as part of the conjugacy comparison.

“The binocular system may be used by, for example, medical professionals, technicians, athletic trainers, coaches, physicians, nurses, etc. In some instances, the binocular system may be used and/or installed at, or near, clinical (e.g., doctor’s office), emergency (e.g., in an ambulance) and/or various on-site settings, such as a setting associated with a relatively high risk for traumatic brain injury like an athletic field, gym, military training facility, or workplace so as to, for example, facilitate rapid testing and/or diagnosis of an individual with a suspected brain injury. In an ideal circumstance, a conjugacy comparison is performed on a patient prior to any brain injury to establish a baseline, and then a conjugacy comparison is performed on the same patient after a potential brain injury. Any differences between the baseline conjugacy comparison and the following conjugacy comparison could reveal whether any brain injury is present and if so to what degree. If no baseline of that patient is available, a conjugacy comparison could be compared to baseline data from healthy peers of the patient (e.g., peers with the same sex, age range, etc.). It is noted that comparisons other than conjugacy could be used to diagnose neurological diseases. For example, even if the eyes were to move in sync (i.e., together), there may be differences in the velocity and/or the amplitude of the fixational eye movement before and after a brain injury. These additional changes in the fixational eye movement may also be used to diagnose neurological diseases.

“In some instances, the binocular system and/or a portion thereof may be portable. Preferably, the binocular system is robust enough to be transported from one place to another (e.g., by means of a rolling cart, be hand-carried within a case, etc.) without misalignment of the optics or other components. In some instances, a portion of the binocular system used to record the fixational eye motion may be portable. The eye motion may be recorded by the portable portion and communicated at a later time to a computer or other processing device stored in a fixed location for analysis and interpretation. This communication may be facilitated by, for example, a physical communication port and/or wired or wireless transceiver located on the portable portion of the binocular system and/or via wired or wireless communication which may be partially, or wholly, facilitated via communication via the Internet or a cloud computing infrastructure. In many instances, the communication and storage of fixation eye motion is protected by encryption and/or other security measures so as to be, for example, compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or other similar regulations.

“The portability of the binocular system may assist a medical professional with the administration of a diagnostic test and/or the recording of fixational eye motion shortly after a patient experiences a possible brain injury. When the binocular system (or a portion thereof) is portable, the portable portion may be powered by an onboard battery and/or electrical power cord.

“These and other embodiments of the invention are more fully described in association with the drawings below.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A binocular system, comprising: a binocular scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) comprising: right eye optics configured to generate a plurality of images a retina of a right eye of a subject; left eye optics configured to generate a plurality of images a retina of a left eye of the subject; and a processor configured to: determine movement of the right eye based on the plurality of images of the retina of the right eye of the subject; determine movement of the left eye based on the plurality of images of the retina of the left eye of the subject; and generate a signal representative of a deviation between the movement of the right eye and the movement of the left eye.

“2. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of images of the retina of the right eye have a point of view similar to a point of view for the images of the retina of the left eye.

“3. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein a resolution of the plurality of images of the retina of the right eye is similar to a resolution for the plurality of images of the retina of the left eye.

“4. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the binocular SLO further comprises: an inter-pupillary distance (IPD) adjustment mechanism coupled to the right eye optics and the left eye optics, the IPD adjustment mechanism configured to adjust a distance between the right eye optics and the left eye optics.

“5. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the binocular SLO further comprises: an optical radiation source configured to generate a beam of optical radiation used to generate at least one of the plurality of images of the retina of the left eye of the subject and the plurality of images a retina of a left eye of the subject

“6. The binocular system of claim 5, wherein the optical radiation source comprises a super luminescent diode.

“7. The binocular system of claim 1, further comprising: an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) configured to generate a fixation target for the subject.

“8. The binocular system of claim 1, further comprising: a MEMS device comprising a bi-directional MEMS scanning mirror.

“9. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the binocular SLO further comprises: an aperture configured to constrain a beam scanning at least one of the retina of the subject’s left eye and the retina of the subject’s right eye.

“10. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the right eye optics comprise: a first acousto-optic modulator (AOM) configured to selectively attenuate a first beam of optical radiation; a first fiber collimator configured to receive the first beam from the first AOM; a first beam splitter configured to pass the first beam from the first fiber collimator to a first MEMS device and reflect the first beam towards a first detector assembly; the first MEMS device configured to scan the first beam along a first and second dimension at a scan rate and to de-scan the first beam onto the first beam splitter; a first lens configured to focus the first beam onto a first mirror and to focus the first beam onto the first MEMS device; the first mirror configured to direct the first beam towards the first lens and towards a second lens; the second lens configured to focus the first beam into the right eye of the subject, the second lens further configured to focus the first beam reflected from the retina of the right eye of the subject onto the first mirror; and the first MEMS device further configured to de-scan the first beam onto the first beam splitter.

“11. The binocular system of claim 10, wherein the left eye optics comprise: a second AOM configured to selectively attenuate a second beam of optical radiation; a second fiber collimator configured to receive the second beam from the second AOM; a second beam splitter configured to pass the second beam from the second fiber collimator to a second MEMS device; the second MEMS device configured to scan the second beam along the first and second dimension at the scan rate and de-scan the second beam onto the second beam splitter; a third lens configured to focus the second beam onto a second mirror and the second MEMS device; the second mirror configured to direct the second beam towards the third lens and a fourth lens; the fourth lens configured to focus the second beam into the left eye of the subject, the fourth lens further configured to focus the second beam reflected from the retina of the left eye of the subject onto the second mirror; the second mirror further configured to direct the second beam towards the third lens; and the second beam splitter further configured to reflect the second beam towards a second detector assembly.

“12. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the movement of the right eye is fixational eye movement.

“13. The binocular system of claim 1, wherein the movement of the left eye is fixational eye movement.

“14. A method comprising: receiving, by a processor, a plurality of images of the retina of the right eye of the subject; determining, by the processor, movement of the right eye based on the plurality of images of the retina of the right eye of the subject; receiving, by the processor, a plurality of images of the retina of the left eye of the subject; determining, by the processor, movement of the left eye based on the plurality of images of the retina of the left eye of the subject; measuring, by the processor, a deviation between movement of the right eye and movement of the left eye; and generating, by the processor, a signal representative of a deviation between the movement of the right eye and the movement of the left eye.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the images of the retina of the right eye have a field of view similar to a field of view for the images of the retina of the left eye.

“16. The method of claim 14, wherein a resolution of images of the retina of the right eye is similar to a resolution for the images of the retina of the left eye.

“17. The method of claim 14, further comprising: providing, by the controller, a signal representative of a deviation between the movement of the right eye and the movement of the left eye to a display device.

“18. The method of claim 14, wherein the movement of the right eye is fixational eye movement.

“19. The method of claim 14, wherein the movement of the left eye is fixational eye movement.

“20. Computer readable storage media having a set of computer-readable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to: receive a plurality of images of the retina of the right eye of the subject; determine movement of the right eye based on the plurality of images of the retina of the right eye of the subject; receive a plurality of images of the retina of the left eye of the subject; determine movement of the left eye based on the plurality of images of the retina of the left eye of the subject; measure a deviation between movement of the right eye and movement of the left eye; generate a signal representative of a deviation between movement of the right eye and movement of the left eye; and provide the signal representative of the deviation between movement of the right eye and movement of the left eye to a display device”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Helft, Zachary; Ni, Yun Hui; Norton, Andrew; Page, Taylor; Sheehy, Christy; Simonsen, Michael. Binocular Retinal Imaging Device, System, And Method For Tracking Fixational Eye Motion. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240090764, filed September 6, 2023 and posted March 21, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240090764)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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