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New Robotic Scanner Does Automated Eye Imaging

Duke University researchers have created a new robotic eye scanner that can detect signs of glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. The patient merely has to stand in front of the robot, while a robotic arm containing the scanning hardware tracks and scans the patient’s eyes.


(Via MedGadget)

The heart of the system is a robotic arm, which is guided by two 3D cameras that identify where the patient is located. The robotic arm then rapidly scans the patient’s eyes, taking less than a minute to scan both, but it doesn’t make any physical contact with the patient during the scan. “The robotic arm gives us the flexibility of handheld OCT scanners, but we don’t need to worry about any operator tremor,” said Mark Draelos, another researcher involved in the study. “If a person moves, the robot moves with it. As long as the scanner is aligned to within a centimeter of where it needs to be on your pupil, the scanner can get an image that is as good as a tabletop scanner.”

Science fiction fans recall the Voight-Kampff empathy test used to distinguish an "andy" from a person in Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep:

"I'm not a peace officer," Rick said. "I'm a bounty hunter." From his opened briefcase he fished out the Voight-Kampff apparatus, seated himself at a nearby rosewood coffee table, and began to assemble the rather simple polygraphic instruments...

"This" - he held up the flat adhesive disk with its trailing wires - "measures capillary dilation in the facial area. We know this to be a primary autonomic response... This records fluctuations of tension within the eye muscles.
(Read more about Dick's Voight-Kampff empathy test)

Here is the apparatus as shown in Ridley Scott's 1982 movie Blade Runner. As you can see, Rachel does not need to rest her chin and keep her eyes steady:

Thanks to Yossi (@ExoThinker) for pointing this out.

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