title: Toward a miniaturized fundus camera.
abstract: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) describes a pathological development of the retina in prematurely born children. In order to prevent severe permanent damage to the eye and enable timely treatment, the fundus of the eye in such children has to be examined according to established procedures. For these examinations, our miniaturized fundus camera is intended to allow the acquisition of wide-angle digital pictures of the fundus for on-line or off-line diagnosis and documentation. We designed two prototypes of a miniaturized fundus camera, one with graded refractive index (GRIN)-based optics, the other with conventional optics. Two different modes of illumination were compared: transscleral and transpupillary. In both systems, the size and weight of the camera were minimized. The prototypes were tested on young rabbits. The experiments led to the conclusion that the combination of conventional optics with transpupillary illumination yields the best results in terms of overall image quality.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, ETZ K61, University of Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. gliss@biomed.ee.ethz.ch
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gliss
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Parel
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Flynn
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pratisto
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Niederer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018715:Microscopy, Video / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008904:Miniaturization / Q000379:methods*; D019721:Ophthalmoscopes; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011817:Rabbits; D012178:Retinopathy of Prematurity / Q000473:pathology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*