JP7271976B2 - ophthalmic equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present disclosure relates to an ophthalmic apparatus for examining an eye to be examined.

As conventional ophthalmologic devices, for example, an eye refractive power measuring device, a corneal curvature measuring device, an intraocular pressure measuring device, a fundus camera, an OCT, an SLO, and the like are known. In these ophthalmologic apparatuses, for example, manual alignment by operating a joystick or the like and automatic alignment by detecting bright spots in the anterior segment image are generally used to align the eye to be examined at a predetermined position. (see Patent Document 1).

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-200002 proposes an apparatus that aligns an eye examination unit with respect to an eye to be examined based on an image of the subject's face.

JP 2013-066760 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-216089

In a device with a short working distance, the tip of the eye examination unit is likely to come into contact with the surroundings of the eye when the eye examination unit is aligned. However, none of the above-described conventional techniques take into consideration the position, height, etc. of the subject's nose.

A technical problem of the present disclosure is to provide an ophthalmologic apparatus that suppresses contact between the eye examination unit and the nose when the eye examination unit is brought closer to the subject's eye.

In order to solve the above problems, an ophthalmologic apparatus according to a first aspect of the present disclosure includes eye examination means for examining the eye to be examined, and captures an image of a face including at least one of left and right eyes to be examined and a nose. and first driving means for three-dimensionally moving the eye examination means relative to the eye to be examined, wherein first information, which is position information of the eye to be examined, is obtained from the image of the face. , second information that is the position information of the nose, and controlling the driving of the first driving means based on the acquired first information and the second information, thereby performing the and control means for approximating the optometric means.

An ophthalmologic apparatus according to a second aspect of the present disclosure includes eye examination means for examining the eye to be examined, anterior eye photographing means for photographing an anterior segment image of the eye to be examined, and an alignment index on the cornea of the eye to be examined. index projection means for projecting; and first driving means for three-dimensionally moving the eye examination means relative to the eye to be examined, performing detection processing of the alignment index on the anterior segment image, and detecting the alignment index. control means for driving and controlling the first driving means based on the position of the alignment index detected by the process, and aligning the eye examination means with respect to the eye to be examined, wherein the control means controls the alignment index. When vignetting by the nose is detected, the movement of the eye examination means with respect to the eye to be examined is stopped, or the orientation of the subject's face and the orientation of the eye examination axis of the eye examination means are adjusted, or guide them to adjust.

It is a schematic diagram showing the appearance of the present embodiment. It is a block diagram showing a control system of the present embodiment. It is a schematic diagram showing the optical system of the present embodiment. 4 is a flow chart showing the control operation of the embodiment; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a route selection method according to the embodiment; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which part of the light flux forming the target image is eclipsed by the nose; FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an anterior segment image captured in the state of FIG. 6;

<Embodiment>
This embodiment will be briefly described with reference to the drawings. An ophthalmologic apparatus (for example, ophthalmologic apparatus 1) examines an eye to be examined, for example. For example, the ophthalmologic apparatus may measure the refractive power, corneal curvature, intraocular pressure, etc. of the eye to be inspected, and may capture images of the anterior ocular segment, fundus, etc. of the eye to be inspected.

The ophthalmologic apparatus includes, for example, an optometry unit (e.g., optometry unit 2), a first drive unit (e.g., first drive unit 4), a face photographing unit (e.g., face photographing unit 90), and a control unit ( For example, it includes a control unit 70) and the like. The optometric unit, for example, examines an eye to be examined. The optometry unit includes at least one of various examination optical systems such as an eye refractive power measurement optical system, a corneal curvature measurement optical system, an intraocular pressure measurement optical system, a fundus imaging optical system, and a tomography optical system. good too.

The drive unit three-dimensionally moves the eye examination unit relative to the eye to be examined. The face imaging unit, for example, captures an image of a face including at least one of the left and right eyes to be examined.

Additionally, it has an anterior eye imaging unit (eg, anterior eye imaging optical system 60), an index projection unit (eg, index projection optical system 50), and a second driving unit (eg, second driving unit 15). good too.

The anterior eye photographing unit, for example, photographs an image of the anterior segment of the subject's eye.

The index projection unit projects an alignment index onto the cornea of the subject's eye, for example. The second driving section is used to change the orientation of the subject's face and the orientation of the optometric axis of the optometric means. A face support part or an optometry part is driven by a second drive part.

The control section controls driving of the driving section. The control unit acquires the first information and the second information, for example, from the face image of the subject. The first information is position information of the eye to be examined. The second information is position information of the subject's nose. In order to obtain the first information and the second information, the face photographing section may photograph a plurality of images of the subject's face.

As described below, a plurality of images in which either the illumination or the imaging optical axis is different from each other is advantageous in obtaining three-dimensional position information as position information. For example, the face photographing unit may simultaneously photograph the subject's face from a plurality of different directions. Further, the subject's face may be photographed from different directions while changing the position of the face photographing unit with respect to the subject's face. Also, a plurality of images may be taken while changing the direction of lighting with respect to the face. The three-dimensional position information is information indicating a three-dimensional positional relationship with respect to the device. Three-dimensional position information may be obtained by, for example, stereo measurement.

In the following description, unless otherwise specified, a case will be described in which three-dimensional position information of the subject's eye and three-dimensional position information of the nose are obtained as the first position information and the second position information, respectively.

However, the second information does not necessarily have to represent the measured value based on the face image. For example, assuming a nose of a certain shape based on at least one of the two-dimensional detection position of the nose based on the face image and the detection positions of the left and right eyes, the second information may be required. In particular, a model of a nose sufficiently large compared to the average size (for convenience called "nose model") may be envisaged. For example, the three-dimensional position information of the nose model when the nose model is placed at positions equidistant from the two-dimensional detection position of the nose based on the face image and the detection positions of the left and right eyes to be examined. , may be obtained as three-dimensional position information of the nose of the subject. In this case, the nose model may be defined at least in the Z direction, for example, by its position relative to the position of the subject's eye. The information representing the nose model includes at least the positional information of the apex position of the nose. In addition, the information representing the nose model may include information representing the width of the nose, positional information of the ridgeline of the nose, and the like. Also, the information representing the nose model may be information for forming an object corresponding to the nose model in the three-dimensional virtual space.

The control unit may move the optometric unit along a route bypassing the nose when the optometric unit approaches the eye to be examined based on the first information and the second information. In this case, one of at least two routes, a first route and a second route, a section of which is partly or wholly passed closer to the ear than the first route, is the first information and the second information. may be selected based on At this time, the end point (target position) of the route may be set according to the three-dimensional position of the eye to be inspected, and the passing point may be set according to the relative position of the eye to be inspected and the nose. Correlation between path learning data representing the path of moving the optometric unit to the target position without contacting the nose and the three-dimensional positions of the subject's eye and nose for a large number of subjects. The ophthalmic device may already have the correlation data (eg, functions, lookup tables, etc.). During the examination, a route suitable for the subject may be selected by referring to the correlation data based on the first information and the second information obtained from the facial image of the subject.

Further, the method of selecting a route for bringing the eye examination unit closer to the eye to be examined is not necessarily limited to this. For example, the route may be calculated based on a simulation in a three-dimensional virtual space. When the simulation is used, it is easy to select a route for bringing the eye examination unit closer to the eye to be examined, taking into account the shape of the subject's face more appropriately.

In the simulation, for example, three-dimensional shape information of the eye examination part is required in order to specify the position of at least the tip of the eye examination part in a three-dimensional virtual space (object space) set with a predetermined reference position as the origin. Become. The three-dimensional shape information of the optometric section may be information used to form an object of the optometric section in the three-dimensional virtual space. Also, in this case, the control unit may acquire three-dimensional shape information of the face around the subject's eye in addition to the first information and the second information. The 3D shape information can be obtained based on the 3D position information of each point of the subject's face photographed from different directions. As a result, an object representing the subject's face can be formed in the three-dimensional virtual space. Note that the positions of the subject's eye and nose in the three-dimensional virtual space can be specified based on the first information and the second information. In this case, for example, a simulation is performed using a plurality of routes, and the control unit selects a route with a relatively short total length and without contact between the object representing the eye examination unit and the object representing the nose. good.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the control section brings the optometric section closer to the subject's eye by controlling the driving of the first driving section based on the first information and the second information. That is, the driving of the first driving unit is controlled in consideration of the three-dimensional position of the subject's nose. As a result, it becomes easier to bring the eye examination section closer to the subject's eye while avoiding contact between the tip of the eye examination section and the subject's nose.

If the three-dimensional position information of the eye to be inspected and the nose can be successively updated while the optometric unit is being brought closer to the eye to be inspected, the route selection may be repeated at any time. For example, when the subject's face moves while the eye examination unit is being brought closer to the subject's eye, etc., the eye examination unit is moved while avoiding contact between the tip of the eye examination unit and the subject's nose. The eye to be examined can be approached.

Further, the control unit may predict whether the eye examination unit will come into contact with the subject's face when the eye examination unit is moved to a predetermined target position with respect to the eye to be examined. For example, based on images of the subject's face captured from a plurality of different directions, it may be predicted whether or not contact will occur. Specifically, it can be predicted based on the relative positions of the subject's eye and the nose. Also, the prediction may be made based on the photographing result or the detection result of a photographing unit or a detecting unit that is separate from the face photographing unit.

When the eye examination means is predicted to come into contact with the subject's face, the control unit drives the second driving means to adjust the orientation of the subject's face and the orientation of the eye examination axis of the eye examination means. good too. Alternatively, an operation for adjustment may be guided by the control unit. The operation for adjustment may be guided by outputting an image or voice guidance indicating the operation for adjustment. At this time, when the orientation of the subject's face and the orientation of the optometric axis are adjusted so that the optometric section is relatively turned toward the ear side or jaw side of the subject's face, the optometric section is brought close to the eye to be inspected up to the required working distance, the eye examination part is less likely to come into contact with the subject's nose, cheeks, forehead and the like.

While moving the optometric unit based on the first information and the second information, the control unit may concurrently perform alignment index detection processing for the anterior segment image. Alignment of the eye examination unit with respect to the eye to be examined may be further controlled by the control unit based on the position of the alignment index detected by the detection process. In this case, the alignment state is finally adjusted based on the position of the alignment index. Therefore, for example, even if there is a deviation in the target position of the optometric unit based on the first information and the second information, the controller can properly align the optometric unit with respect to the subject's eye. It should be noted that the case where there is a shift in the target position is assumed to be, for example, the case where the subject's eye moves between when the face image is captured by the face capturing unit and when the anterior segment image is captured.

In the detection process, it may be detected whether the alignment index is vignetted by the nose. At this time, the alignment indices may be projected toward the cornea from a plurality of oblique directions, and vignetting may be detected by not detecting the alignment indices on the nasal side with respect to the corneal vertex. When the vignetting of the alignment index due to the nose is detected, the tip of the eye examination unit is considerably close to the subject's nose. good too. This prevents the eye examination unit from coming into contact with the subject's nose.

Alternatively, when vignetting of the alignment index due to the nose is detected, the control unit may drive the second driving unit to adjust the orientation of the subject's face and the orientation of the optometric axis of the optometric device. Alternatively, an operation for adjustment may be guided by the control unit.

<Example>
An ophthalmologic apparatus according to the present disclosure will be described based on the drawings. In the following description, an eye refractive power measuring device will be described as an example of an ophthalmologic device. tomography) and SLO (Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope).

The ophthalmologic apparatus of this embodiment examines an eye to be examined, for example. For example, the ophthalmologic apparatus of this embodiment may perform an examination for each eye, or may perform an examination for both eyes at the same time (with binocular vision).

<Appearance>
Based on FIG. 1, the appearance of the ophthalmologic apparatus will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the ophthalmologic apparatus 1 of this embodiment mainly includes an optometry section 2, a face photographing section 90, and a first driving section 4. As shown in FIG. The eye examination unit 2 examines an eye to be examined. The optometric unit 2 may include, for example, an optical system for measuring the refractive power, corneal curvature, intraocular pressure, etc. of the eye to be examined. Further, the optometric unit 2 may include an optical system or the like for photographing the anterior segment of the subject's eye, the fundus, or the like. In the present embodiment, the optometric unit 2 for photographing the fundus will be described as an example. The face photographing unit 90 photographs, for example, the face of the subject's eye. The face photographing unit 90 photographs, for example, a face including at least one of the left and right eyes to be examined. The first drive unit 4 moves the optometric unit 2 and the face photographing unit 90 with respect to the base 5 in the vertical, horizontal, forward and backward directions (three-dimensional directions), for example.

Furthermore, the ophthalmologic apparatus 1 of the present embodiment may include, for example, a housing 6, a display section 7, an operation section 8, a face support section 9, a second driving section 15, and the like. For example, the housing 6 accommodates the optometry unit 2, the face photographing unit 90, the first driving unit 4, and the like.

The display unit 7 displays, for example, an observation image of the subject's eye, measurement results, and the like. For example, the display unit 7 may be provided integrally with the device 1 or may be provided separately from the device. The ophthalmologic apparatus 1 may include an operation section 8 . The operation unit 8 is used for various settings of the apparatus 1 and operations at the start of measurement. Various operation instructions are input to the operation unit 8 by the examiner. For example, the operation unit 8 may be various human interfaces such as a touch panel, joystick, mouse, keyboard, trackball, and buttons.

The face support 9 may comprise, for example, a forehead rest 10 and a chin rest 11 . The chin rest 11 may be vertically moved by driving the chin rest driving section 12 .

The second driving section 15 in this embodiment includes a swing-tilt mechanism. The swing-tilt mechanism of this embodiment includes a swing mechanism 15a for turning the optometric unit 2 left and right with respect to the eye to be examined, and a tilt mechanism 15b for raising and lowering the optometric unit 2 with respect to the eye to be examined. In this embodiment, the direction of the eye examination axis L1 with respect to the direction of the face is changed by driving the second drive unit 15 . The second drive unit 15 may change the orientation of the eye examination axis L1 by driving an actuator (not shown) based on a signal from the control unit 70 .

<Control system>
As shown in FIG. 2, the device 1 has a control section 70 . The control unit 70 controls various controls of the device 1 . The control unit 70 includes, for example, a general CPU (Central Processing Unit) 71, ROM 72, RAM 73, and the like. For example, the ROM 72 stores an ophthalmologic apparatus control program for controlling the ophthalmologic apparatus, initial values, and the like. For example, RAM temporarily stores various information. The control unit 70 is connected to the optometric unit 2, the face photographing unit 90, the first driving unit 4, the display unit 7, the operating unit 8, the chin base driving unit 12, the storage unit (for example, non-volatile memory) 74, and the like. there is The storage unit 74 is, for example, a non-transitory storage medium that can retain stored content even when power supply is interrupted. For example, a hard disk drive, a detachable USB flash memory, or the like can be used as the storage unit 74 .

<Optical section>
The optometry unit 2 performs measurement, inspection, photographing, and the like of an eye to be examined. In this embodiment, the optometric unit 2 has, for example, a photographing optical system 20 . The imaging optical system 20 is a main optical system for imaging the fundus. Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 3 , the optometric unit 2 may include an index projection optical system 50 and an anterior eye imaging optical system 60 .

The photographing optical system 20 photographs the fundus of the subject's eye via the eye examination axis L1. The imaging optical system 20 may also serve as an observation optical system. The eye examination axis L<b>1 in this embodiment is the photographing optical axis of the photographing optical system 20 . In this embodiment, the imaging optical system 20 includes at least a light source 21 , a beam splitter 23 , an objective lens 25 and an imaging device 29 . The imaging optical system 20 is roughly divided into a light projecting optical system 20 a including a light source 21 and a light receiving optical system 20 b including an imaging device 29 . A light source 21 emits illumination light for photographing the fundus. The illumination light is applied to the fundus through the objective lens 25 . The imaging element 29 is arranged at a fundus conjugate position. The fundus reflected light of the illumination light is imaged by the imaging device 29 . As a result, a fundus image of the subject's eye E is captured.

As shown in FIG. 3, the optical axis L2 of the light receiving optical system 20b is made coaxial with the eye examination axis L1 by the beam splitter . The objective lens 25 is arranged on the eye examination axis L1.

A beam splitter 63 is arranged on the eye examination axis L1. The beam splitter 63 couples the optical paths of the anterior segment imaging optical system 20 and the imaging optical system 20 .

As shown in FIG. 3, a target projection optical system 50 may be arranged in front of the subject's eye. The target projection optical system 50 mainly projects a target used for alignment of the optical system with respect to the subject's eye onto the anterior segment of the eye. Here, the target projection optical system 50 may also be used as an anterior segment illumination for illuminating the anterior segment of the eye E. FIG.

A target projection optical system 50 projects an alignment target onto the eye to be inspected. In the index projection optical system 50 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of index light sources are arranged on a concentric circle with the optometric axis L1 as the center. The index projection optical system 50 includes a first index projection optical system 51 and a second index projection optical system 52 . The first target projection optical system 51 projects diffused light onto the cornea of the subject's eye E to project a finite target. The first target projection optical system 51 is also used as an anterior segment illumination for illuminating the anterior segment of the eye E to be examined in the ophthalmologic apparatus 1 of the present embodiment. The second index projection optical system 52 projects parallel light onto the cornea of the subject's eye, and projects an index at infinity. As an example, in this embodiment, the first index projection optical system 51 projects an index at infinity onto the cornea of the subject's eye E from the left-right direction. The second target projection optical system 52 of this embodiment projects a finite target onto the cornea of the subject's eye E from an obliquely downward direction.

The control unit 70 acquires the position information of the subject's eye by detecting the positions of the indices projected onto the subject's eye by the anterior segment image first index optical system 51 and the second index projection optical system 52 .

The anterior eye imaging optical system 60 may be provided to capture an anterior segment image of the subject's eye. For example, the anterior eye imaging optical system 60 includes at least an imaging device 62 . In FIG. 3 , the imaging device 62 is provided on the optical axis L3 in the reflection direction of the beam splitter 63 . The imaging element 62 is arranged at a position optically conjugate with the anterior segment of the subject's eye. The imaging element 62 images the anterior segment illuminated by the index projection optical system 50 . An output from the imaging element 62 is input to the control section 70 . As a result, an anterior segment image P1 of the subject's eye imaged by the imaging device 62 is displayed on the display unit 7 (see FIG. 2). The imaging element 62 also captures an alignment index (a finite index and an infinite index in this embodiment) formed on the cornea of the subject's eye by the index projection optical system 50 . As a result, the control unit 70 can detect the alignment index based on the imaging result of the imaging device 62 . Further, the control unit 70 can determine whether the alignment state is appropriate based on the position at which the alignment index is detected. For example, the control unit 70 may detect the working distance based on the positional relationship between the finite distance index and the infinite distance index. The optical axis L3 of the anterior eye imaging optical system 60 is made coaxial with the measurement optical axis L1 by the beam splitter 63 .

Further, the optometry unit 2 may have an optotype presenting optical system for fixing the eye to be examined. The target presenting optical system projects a fixation target via, for example, the eye examination axis L1.

<Face shooting part>
The face photographing unit 90 may include, for example, an optical system for photographing a face including at least one of the left and right eyes to be examined. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the face photographing unit 90 of this embodiment mainly includes an imaging element 91 and an imaging lens 92, for example.

The face photographing unit 90 is provided at a position where, for example, when the optometric unit 2 is at the initial position, both eyes and nose of the eye to be examined can be photographed. In this embodiment, the initial position of the eye examination unit 2 is set to a position shifted to the right with respect to the center of the subject's face so that the right eye can be easily examined. Therefore, the face photographing unit 90 is provided at a position where both eyes of the eye to be examined can be photographed with the eye examination unit 2 shifted to the right in the initial position. For example, the face photographing section 90 is arranged at the center of the machine with the optometric section 2 at the initial position. For example, when the initial position is set based on half the interpupillary distance, that is, the interpupillary distance of one eye, the face photographing unit 90 is shifted left and right by the interpupillary distance of one eye with respect to the mechanical center of the device main body. may be placed in position. The average value of the interpupillary distance of one eye is about 32 mm.

Also, the face photographing unit 90 may be arranged in consideration of the optical systems of various devices. Depending on the device, optical elements such as a light source, a lens, and a light receiving element may be provided on the left and right sides of the central eye examination window. In some cases, optical elements are provided above and below the examination window. In some cases, an air ejection nozzle for measuring intraocular pressure is provided. In consideration of these cases, the face photographing unit 90 may be attached in an oblique direction, avoiding vertical and horizontal directions of the eye examination window. In this embodiment, it is installed obliquely to the left. In this way, the arrangement of the face photographing unit 90 may be arranged in consideration of the optical systems of various devices. Of course, depending on the model, it may be attached in any direction around the optometric window.

The face photographing section 90 of this embodiment is moved together with the eye examination section 2 by the first driving section 4 . Of course, the face photographing unit 90 may be fixed to the base 5 and not moved.

In this embodiment, the face photographing unit 90 photographs both eyes and the nose of the subject's eye from one direction at one timing, but this is not necessarily the case. For example, the face photographing section 90 may be capable of photographing both eyes and the nose of the subject's eye simultaneously from a plurality of different directions when the optometric section 2 is at the initial position. In this case, the face photographing unit 90 may be, for example, a stereo camera.

<Face illumination optical system>
A face illumination optical system 80 illuminates the face of the subject's eye. Face illumination optics 80 may be provided to illuminate the subject's face, including the subject's eyes. The face illumination optical system 80 includes an illumination light source 81, for example. The illumination light source 81 emits infrared light. It is preferable that the face illumination optical system 80 uniformly illuminates the face of the subject's eye around the optical axis of the face photographing unit 90 . In this embodiment, illumination light sources 81 are provided at left and right positions of the eye examination window. Note that the face illumination optical system 80 may be provided at a symmetrical position with respect to the face photographing section 90 . For example, they may be provided at symmetrical positions centering on the face photographing unit 90, or may be provided at symmetrical positions vertically. The face illumination optical system 80 uses a light source with a lower directivity than the index light source for alignment.

<Control method>
The control operation of the device 1 will be described below based on the flowchart of FIG. For example, the apparatus 1 automatically aligns the eye to be inspected with the optometry unit 2 in order to inspect the eye to be inspected. In the following description, the subject's face is supported by the face support section 9 in advance.

(Step S1: face photographing)
The control unit 70 photographs the subject's face supported by the face support unit 9 using the face photographing unit 90 . In this embodiment, the eye examination unit 2 is moved between two predetermined points. The face is photographed from two different directions by photographing the face with the face photographing unit 90 at the two points. The positions of the two points predetermined as the positions of the eye examination unit 2 for photographing the face are hereinafter referred to as a first face photographing position and a second face photographing position, respectively. In this embodiment, while moving from the first face photographing position to the second face photographing position, an image of the face is photographed at each position. After that, with the second face photographing position as the initial position, the eye examination unit 2 is brought closer to the eye to be examined.

(Step S2: Acquisition of first information and second information)
Next, the control unit 70 acquires at least the first information and the second information from the facial images captured from two directions. As described above, the first information is the three-dimensional position information of the subject's eye. Also, the second information is three-dimensional position information of the nose. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-221075 by the present applicant discloses a method of acquiring three-dimensional coordinates of left and right eyes to be examined from facial images captured from two directions. For example, using this technique, the first information may be obtained as three-dimensional coordinates of the subject's eye.

In this embodiment, the three-dimensional position information of the nose can also be obtained using the same method as the method for detecting the subject's eye in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-221075. At this time, the position of the nose in the face image in each direction is detected using image processing or the like, and the three-dimensional coordinates of the nose are derived as second information from the position information of the nose specified in the image in each direction. You may Known examples of image processing for detecting the position of the nose include, for example, using a nose detection filter and extracting a feature amount. In this embodiment, the three-dimensional shape information of the nose is also acquired by obtaining the three-dimensional coordinates of each point of the nose that matches when two face images photographed in different directions are matched. .

(Step S3: Route selection)
The control unit 70 selects a route for bringing the optometric unit 2 closer to the subject's eye E based on the first information and the second information. In this embodiment, the initial position Po of the path is the second imaging position, and the target position is a position away from the subject's eye E in the Z direction by a certain distance. In this embodiment, the target position is set in a range that is away from the subject's eye E with respect to the required working distance and in which the alignment index image can be detected. Thus, in this embodiment, the three-dimensional position information of the second imaging position is known, and the three-dimensional position information of the target position is determined based on the three-dimensional position of the subject's eye indicated by the first information.

The control unit 70 selects a route bypassing the nose from the initial position to the target position. As an example, as shown in FIG. 5, the control unit 70 controls the left and right eye objects Ob1 and Ob2, the nose object Ob3, and the eye examination unit in a three-dimensional virtual space with a predetermined position as the origin. 2, and an object Ob4 including at least the tip of the object Ob4 based on the various information obtained in step 2. After that, first, a simulation is performed in which the optometric unit 2 is moved along a straight path Q1 (first path in the present embodiment) connecting the initial position Po and the target position Pe. If the eye examination unit 2 and the nose objects Ob3 and Ob4 do not come into contact during the simulation, the control unit 70 selects the route. On the other hand, when both objects Ob3 and Ob4 of the eye examination unit 2 and the nose come into contact during the simulation, a simulation is performed using a new route. For example, in the simulation using the previous route, a passing point Pb on the new route Q2 is placed at a position a predetermined distance away from the position (passing point Pa) at which the objects Ob3 and Ob4 come into contact with each other on the new route Q2. set. Then, a simulation is performed in which the optometric unit 2 is moved along a new route Q2 that connects the initial position Pa and the passing point Pb, and the passing point Pb and the target position Pe with straight lines or curved lines, respectively. If the contact is resolved, that route may be adopted, and if the contact is not resolved, the above processing may be repeated.

(Step 4 Movement of optometry unit along path)
The control unit 70 controls the first driving unit 4 to move the optometric unit 2 along the path selected in step 3 (first alignment). As a result, the eye examination unit 2 is automatically brought closer from the position where the eye examination unit 2 and the subject's eye E are separated from each other while avoiding the nose.

(Step 5 Start projection and detection of alignment indices)
In this embodiment, the control unit 70 starts projection of the alignment index and detection of the index images Ma to Md based on the anterior segment image in parallel with the movement of the optometric unit 2 along the path. . The index images Ma and Mb are indices at infinity by the first index projection optical system 51 . The index images Mc and Md are indices at infinity by the second index projection optical system 52 .

(Step 6 Determination of vignetting)
At the stage when the eye examination unit 2 is moved to a predetermined range with respect to the eye to be examined E, the index images Ma to Md can be detected based on the anterior segment images. At this stage, the control unit 70 determines at any time whether or not any one of the index images Ma to Md is vignetting. In the present embodiment, the control unit 70, among the index images Ma to Md, does not detect the index image formed on the nose side and detects the index image formed on the ear side. Thus, the controller 70 determines that the index light flux on the nose side is vignetted by the nose N. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, a part of the index image (here, the index image Ma) is vignetted by the nose N and is not depicted. If vignetting occurs, it is considered that the distance between the eye examination unit 2 and the nose is narrow.

(Step 7 Stop movement of eye examination unit or notify approach)
Therefore, in the present embodiment, when it is determined that vignetting has occurred (Step 6; Yes), the control section 70 stops the movement control of the optometric section 2 . This prevents the eye examination unit 2 from coming into contact with the subject's face. After stopping the movement control, the mode may be switched to a mode for manually adjusting the position of the optometric unit 2 (manual alignment mode). After switching to the manual alignment mode, for example, the examiner manually operates the second driving unit 15 to adjust the orientation of the eye examination axis L1 with respect to the orientation of the subject's face, and manually adjusts the XYZ directions. to adjust the alignment state.

Further, when it is determined that vignetting has occurred, the control unit 70 may notify the examiner or the like via the display unit 7 or the like. For example, it may be notified that the optometric unit 2 may come into contact with the subject's face (more specifically, the nose). Further, when switching to the manual alignment mode, for example, that effect may be notified.

(Step 8 Alignment based on index image)
If the index images are detected satisfactorily (Step 6; No), the control unit 70 performs alignment based on the positions of the index images Ma to Md (finely adjusts the positions of the eye examination unit 2 and the subject's eye E). .

At this time, the control unit 70 detects the XY coordinates of the center of the ring shape formed by the index images Ma to Md (see FIG. 2) projected in the ring shape as the virtual corneal vertex position Mo (see FIG. 2). do. The controller 70 sets the detected corneal vertex position Mo as the alignment target position. Next, the control unit 70 drives and controls the first driving unit 4 so that the eye examination axis L1 and the alignment target position (that is, the corneal apex position Mo) match. Further, the control unit 70 can obtain the alignment deviation amount in the Z direction by comparing the ratio of the image interval between the index images Ma and Mb at infinity and the image interval between the index images Mc and Md at the finite distance. (See JP-A-6-46999 for details). The control unit 70 drives and controls the first driving unit 4 based on the obtained alignment deviation amount in the Z direction. In the following description, the alignment control described above may be called auto-tracking.

(Step 9 Judgment of Alignment Completion)
When the alignment relationship between the subject's eye E and the optometric unit 2 falls within a predetermined allowable range (target in this embodiment), the control unit 70 temporarily stops the alignment operation. If it is not within the predetermined allowable range, the control unit 70 may repeat each step from step 6, for example.

(Step 10 Imaging of fundus)
When the amount of misalignment in the XYZ directions reaches a predetermined allowable range, the control unit 70 causes the eye examination unit 2 to start examining the eye to be examined. In this embodiment, the eye examination unit 2 captures a fundus image. Of course, not only fundus photography but also various measurements, photography, etc., may be performed according to the type of optometric unit.

(others)
After photographing one eye in this manner, the eye examination unit 2 may be moved to photograph the other eye. At this time, the movement of the eye examination unit 2 may be controlled based on the three-dimensional position information of the other eye and the three-dimensional position information of the nose. The control unit 70 retracts the optometric unit 2 from the eye that has been photographed, and then brings the optometric unit 2 closer to the other eye. At that time, the optometric unit 3 may be controlled in the same manner as in steps 3 and 4.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 ophthalmologic apparatus 2 optometry unit 4 drive unit 5 base 9 face support unit 60 anterior eye photographing optical system 70 control unit 90 face photographing unit

Claims (3)

an eye examination means for examining an eye to be examined;
face photographing means for photographing a face image including at least one of the left and right eyes to be examined and a nose;
a first drive means for three-dimensionally moving the eye examination means relative to the eye to be examined;
obtaining first information, which is positional information of the subject's eye, and second information, which is positional information of the nose, from the face image, and based on the obtained first information and the second information; a control means for causing the eye examination means to approach the eye to be examined by controlling the driving of the first drive means;
An ophthalmic device comprising: 2. The ophthalmologic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means moves said eye examination means in a route bypassing said nose when said eye examination means is brought closer to said eye to be examined based on said first information and said second information. . 3. The ophthalmologic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first information is three-dimensional position information of an eye to be examined, and said second information is three-dimensional position information of a nose.

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