Portable Retinal Imaging

The major challenge in preventing blindness is identifying patients and bringing them to specialty care. Diseases that affect the retina, the image sensor in the human eye, are particularly challenging to address, because they require highly trained eye specialists (ophthalmologists) who use expensive equipment to visualize the inner parts of the eye. Diabetic retinopathy, HIV/AIDS related retinitis, and age-related macular degeneration are three conditions that can be screened and diagnosed to prevent blindness caused by damage to retina. We exploit a combination of two novel ideas which simplify the constraints of traditional devices, with simplified optics and cleaver illumination in order to capture and visualize images of the retina in a standalone device easily operated by the user. Prototypes are conveniently embedded in either a mobile hand-held retinal camera, or wearable eye-glasses.