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Use of prisms for navigation and driving in hemianopic patients.

PURPOSE: (1) To compare the outcomes of orientation and mobility and driving training with Fresnel prisms and the Gottlieb Visual Field Awareness System for patients with homonymous hemianopsia, and (2) To determine whether the patients continue to use the optical enhancement devices at a 2-year follow-up point. METHODS: Patients with homonymous hemianopsia were provided with a rehabilitation program where they were fitted with prism lenses and trained to use them for navigation and driving. Telephone interviews were used to obtain information about device usage 2 years following the completion of the training program. RESULTS: Patients' performance was compared with a test-retest criterion in the visual skills areas of recognition, mobility, peripheral detection, scanning, tracking, and visual memory. Patients with hemianopic loss showed improvements in all of the visual skills categories, ranging from the highest improvements of 26% of tasks improved in the mobility category to 13% in the recognition category. The majority of the hemianopic patients reported using the devices at the 2-year follow-up interview. CONCLUSIONS: The patients with homonymous hemianopsia showed improvements in visual functioning using prism lenses, although these improvements were smaller than those found in previous studies with central or bilateral peripheral vision loss groups who were trained to use other optical enhancement devices for navigation and driving using a similar curriculum. However, given the evidence of increased risk of accidents for patients with peripheral vision loss, the safety of peripheral enhancement devices for driving must be thoroughly evaluated before their impact on public safety is known.

Adult↗

Non-demyelinating optic neuropathy: clinical entities.

Alternative causes of optic neuritis (ON), other than primary demyelination or non-demyelinating optic neuropathies which can mimic acute ON, should be rigorously considered if a patient with presumed ON does not follow the typical clinical course or has a normally appearing brain on magnetic resonance imaging. A thorough differential diagnosis includes viral and bacterial optic neuropathies, ischemic optic neuropathies, Devic's neuromyelitis optica, compressive or infiltrative optic neuropathies, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy and toxic and deficiency optic neuropathies. All patients should undergo a complete neuroophthalmological examination to help exclude other diseases mimicking ON. Atypical clinical cases of optic neuropathy require further specific laboratory, neurophysiological and imaging tests to make a correct and early diagnosis.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

Evaluation of a fiberoptic-based system for measurement of optical properties in highly attenuating turbid media.

BACKGROUND: Accurate measurements of the optical properties of biological tissue in the ultraviolet A and short visible wavelengths are needed to achieve a quantitative understanding of novel optical diagnostic devices. Currently, there is minimal information on optical property measurement approaches that are appropriate for in vivo measurements in highly absorbing and scattering tissues. We describe a novel fiberoptic-based reflectance system for measurement of optical properties in highly attenuating turbid media and provide an extensive in vitro evaluation of its accuracy. The influence of collecting reflectance at the illumination fiber on estimation accuracy is also investigated. METHODS: A neural network algorithm and reflectance distributions from Monte Carlo simulations were used to generate predictive models based on the two geometries. Absolute measurements of diffuse reflectance were enabled through calibration of the reflectance system. Spatially-resolved reflectance distributions were measured in tissue phantoms at 405 nm for absorption coefficients (mu(a)) from 1 to 25 cm-1 and reduced scattering coefficients (mu'(s)) from 5 to 25 cm-1. These data and predictive models were used to estimate the optical properties of tissue-simulating phantoms. RESULTS: By comparing predicted and known optical properties, the average errors for mu(a) and mu'(s) were found to be 3.0% and 4.6%, respectively, for a linear probe approach. When bifurcated probe data was included and samples with mu(a) values less than 5 cm-1 were excluded, predictive errors for mu(a) and mu'(s) were further reduced to 1.8% and 3.5%. CONCLUSION: Improvements in system design have led to significant reductions in optical property estimation error. While the incorporation of a bifurcated illumination fiber shows promise for improving the accuracy of mu's estimates, further study of this approach is needed to elucidate the source of discrepancies between measurements and simulation results at low mu(a) values.

Computer Simulation↗

Stability of electrostatic actuated membrane mirror devices.

Membrane mirrors with transparent electrodes were fabricated for adaptive optics. These devices are capable of generating large, low-spatial-order deformations but exhibit instability for high-order deformations. A variational calculation of the electrostatic and mechanical energy of such membrane devices leads to criteria for stable operation. Simulations based upon this calculation are able to reproduce the observed behavior of fabricated devices and suggest suitable device parameters for improved performance with high-order deformations.

Computer Simulation↗

Conducting polymers as driving electrodes for Polymer-Dispersed Liquid-Crystals display devices: on the electro-optical efficiency.

Intrinsically conducting polymer (ICP) thin films are used as driving electrodes for Polymer-Dispersed Liquid-Crystals (PDLC) display devices. In order to investigate the electro-optical efficiency of these organic electrodes, three different kinds of conducting polymers, i.e. polyaniline doped with 10-camphorsulfonic acid (PANI(HCSA)), polypyrrole doped with dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (PPY(DBSA)), and polyethylenedioxythiophene doped with polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT(PSS)), were prepared or purchased, and coated either on glass or plastic substrates. Optical absorption studies in the UV-Vis range of the conducting polymer-coated substrates were first performed showing the presence of conducting species for the three types of polymers. The electrical characteristics of the resulting films were measured with the four-probes technique. PANI(HCSA) exhibits a higher conductivity sigma approximately 122 S x cm(-1) (RS=1.2x10(3) Omega x (-1)) compared to PPY(DBSA) sigma approximately 2.6 S x cm(-1) (RS=150.7x10(3) Omega x (-1)), and PEDOT(PSS) sigma approximately 1.6 S x cm(-1) (RS=637.3x10(3) Omega x (-1)). It is also shown that for a given conducting polymer, its electrical conductivity decreases when a plastic substrate is used. These observations have been related to significant morphological changes observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A mixture of Norland Optical Adhesive 65 and nematic liquid-crystal E7 in the weight ratio (35:65) was used as precursor of the PDLC material. Better electro-optical responses (transmission properties, drive voltages and switching times) of PDLC films were obtained for devices prepared with (PPY(DBSA))-based electrodes. The electro-optical performances of the PDLC display devices also depend on the nature of the ICP substrate used.

Journal Article↗

3D optoelectronic analysis of interfractional patient setup variability in frameless extracranial stereotactic radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: To investigate size and frequency of interfractional patient setup variability in hypofractionated stereotactic extracranial radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Infrared optical 3D tracking of surface markers was applied to quantify setup variability on 51 patients. Isocenter position repeatability was assessed by means of frameless anatomic calibration and was compared with portal image evaluation. Specific data analysis allowed for compensation of patients' breathing movements and for separation of the effects of operator-dependent misalignments and respiration-induced displacements. Effects of patient position (supine vs. prone) and treatment table configuration were investigated. RESULTS: Patient positioning assisted by the optical tracking device allowed reducing displacements of surface control points within the 3-mm range. Errors in isocenter localization were in the range of a few millimeters. This was in agreement with the portal image evaluation. Breathing motion introduced appreciable errors, which increased control points and isocenter 3D variability. This effect was significantly higher than those related to other investigated factors. CONCLUSIONS: The role of infrared optical tracking devices for patient positioning is assessed on a large patient population. Their use in the frame of high-precision radiotherapy is emphasized by the application of related methodologies for breathing phase detection and frameless isocenter localization.

Abdominal Neoplasms↗

Comparison of in vivo visual and computer-aided tooth shade determination.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of shade-determining devices. For the daily practitioner, it is essential to know whether modern computer-aided shade selection is reliable in everyday life. So the question of how the clinical usability of these machines could be rated has to be clarified. In the following, three actual devices available in the market were compared using a human observer's perception. The SpectroShade device (MHT Optic Research AG, 8155 Niederhasli, Switzerland), the ShadeVision device (X-Rite Co., Grandville, USA) and the Digital Shade Guide DSG4 (A. Rieth, 73614 Schorndorf, Germany) were assessed with respect to their agreement with the color perception of three examiners looking at 57 test persons (six teeth each for a total of 342). Shades were reported in Vita Classical shades. It could be demonstrated that every single human examiner showed a significantly higher agreement value (human group on average 40.2%) when compared with the remaining five methods than each computer-aided tooth shade determination device. The devices reached on average only a value of 28.6%, whereas the X-Rite ShadeVision showed a significant better result (33.2%) than the MHT SpectroShade and Rieth DSG4 (27.0 and 25.7%). Identical shade results given by all three methods of a group (group of three devices and three humans) were found to be rather low for the computer-aided devices (9.9%) compared with humans (36.7%). All six methods together agreed in 3.3% of the cases. It becomes evident that the methods-especially the computer-aided shade determination-are rather divided about the respective tooth color. Deficiencies of the instrumental as well as the visual detection become obvious. The best agreement level was performed by the human examiners. The best agreement of the evaluated devices was obtained-generally as well as among the human testers-by the X-Rite ShadeVision system, followed at a statistically significant distance by the MHT SpectroShade and the Rieth DSG4. The agreement among the examiner group was 52.9%, significantly better than that of each device compared to this group (31.3% on average). Color detection and its realization are very complex. As shown, in many cases, computer-aided color shade determination of natural teeth seems to not reflect human perception.

Adult↗

The Oqual: a new device for measuring the optical quality of the anterior segment of the human eye.

An attachment to (Haag-Streit and Topcon) slit-lamps is described. This permits projection of a patterned target into the eye and the visual or photographic analysis of the details of the image reflected from the posterior surface of the crystalline lens. A numerical assessment can then be made of the optical quality of the crystalline lens as a whole, although scanning it is also possible. The attachment has also been used successfully for the objective assessment of the patient's post-operative visual acuity following kerato-refractive procedures.

Anterior Eye Segment↗

Two-color mixing for classifying agricultural products for safety and quality.

We show that the chromaticness of the visual signal that results from the two-color mixing achieved through an optically enhanced binocular device is directly related to the band ratio of light intensity at the two selected wavebands. A technique that implements the band-ratio criterion in a visual device by using two-color mixing is presented here. The device will allow inspectors to identify targets visually in accordance with a two-wavelength band ratio. It is a method of inspection by human vision assisted by an optical device, which offers greater flexibility and better cost savings than a multispectral machine vision system that implements the band-ratio criterion. With proper selection of the two narrow wavebands, discrimination by chromaticness that is directly related to the band ratio can work well. An example application of this technique for the inspection of carcasses chickens of afficted with various diseases is given. An optimal pair of wavelengths of 454 and 578 nm was selected to optimize differences in saturation and hue in CIE LUV color space among different types of target. Another example application, for the detection of chilling injury in cucumbers, is given, here the selected wavelength pair was 504 and 652 nm. The novel two-color mixing technique for visual inspection can be included in visual devices for various applications, ranging from target detection to food safety inspection.

Journal Article↗

Tunable two-dimensional hexagonal phase array in domain-engineered Z-cut lithium niobate crystal.

An optical phase array with tunable phase step is demonstrated. The phase array consists of a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of inverted ferroelectric domains fabricated on a Z-cut lithium niobate substrate. The electro-optically tunable phase step is obtained by the application of an external electric field along the z axis of the crystal via transparent electrodes. Theoretical analysis and experimental results are presented, showing that a tunable and flexible adaptive optical illuminator device can be realized by combining the electro-optic tunability with the Talbot effect. Generation of a multiplicity of light patterns is shown.

Journal Article↗

Multibeam long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy instrument: a device for simultaneous measurements along multiple light paths.

A novel long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) apparatus for measuring tropospheric trace gases and the first results from its use are presented: We call it the multibeam instrument. It is the first active DOAS device that emits several light beams simultaneously through only one telescope and with only one lamp as a light source, allowing simultaneous measurement along multiple light paths. In contrast to conventional DOAS instruments, several small mirrors are positioned near the lamp, creating multiple virtual light sources that emit one light beam each in one specific direction. The possibility of error due to scattering between the light beams is negligible. The trace-gas detection limits of NO2, SO2, O3, and H2CO are similar to those of the traditional long-path DOAS instrument.

Journal Article↗