• Universitat de València
• Asociación Industrial de Óptica, Color e Imagen (Spanish for Optics, Colour and Imaging Industry Association)

• Raúl Martínez Cuenca
• Ángel Tolosa Ruiz
• Natividad Alcón Gargallo

The term fundus is used to refer to the posterior pole of the eyeball, mainly the retina, macula and optic nerve. It is commonly used to detect eye diseases, but it is also possible to detect diseases not directly linked to the eye, such as diabetes or hypertension. The most common devices for non-invasive examination of the retinal fundus are the ophthalmoscope and fundus camera, which are very useful for initial diagnosis and monitoring of retinal pathologies. Most of them provide flat images and cannot select different planes in depth of the scene, and can also cause visual fatigue when observation is prolonged. Other more sophisticated equipment allows high-resolution and high-contrast reconstructions; however, their disadvantages are their high cost, the monochromaticity of the images, the limited number of pixels or the need to perform a point-by-point scan over the entire retinal area.

Researchers from the Universitat de València, in collaboration with AIDO (Acronym for the Optics, Colour and Imaging Industry Association), have developed a novel camera that allows three-dimensional photographs of the back of the eye to be obtained with polychromatic light, with high resolution, with full parallax and without causing visual fatigue to the patient. These images can be projected onto an integral image monitor. It is also possible to calculate a topographic map of the fundus with high segmentation capability. This capture system includes an ophthalmoscopic lens, a microlens array and a sensor, and allows many perspectives of the ocular fundus to be recorded with a single shot. The technology enables true 3D image reconstruction of the retinal fundus.

The technique can be applied

• In optics and ophthalmology: to capture 3D images of the back of the eye.

The main advantages provided by the invention are:

• High image resolution compared to conventional ophthalmoscopes and fundus cameras.
• Features horizontal and vertical parallax.
• Allows real reconstruction of the 3D image of the retinal fundus.
• Low cost compared to high resolution equipment.
• Enables enlargements to be made on a 2D image generated from the integral photograph.
• Generates 3D colour images of the posterior pole of the eye.
• Quick and comfortable test for the patient, with a single camera shot capturing a large number of fundus perspectives both horizontally and vertically.
• It provides a large field of view, from 15º to 110º.

• Patent granted