JPH11299734A - Method and device for measurement of eye congestion degree - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To determinatively and easily measure the eye congestion degree by photographing the white part of the eye under a prescribed condition and digitizing the photographed data. SOLUTION: A shielded part 20 of a photographing mechanism 1 is made abut on the left eye of a subject to shield the surrounding of the eye to cut off invasion of light into the eye ball surface from outside, and light from a light source 40 is passed through a light transmitting part 30 to make the light an indirect light and cast on the eye in all surrounding directions. Under such a condition, an image of the eye is taken by an imaging part 50. Obtained photographed data are set to a calculation mechanism through a cable. The area of the white of the eye is selected from the photographed data. R, G, and B values on each pixel are read in respectively and their sizes are evaluated to digitize them into one of red or white. Thus a pixel finally discriminated red corresponds to a congestion part and the rate (%) of the number of pixels finally discriminated red against the total number of pixels in the selected area is calculated. The value is made the eye congestion degree.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for quantitatively and easily measuring the degree of hyperemia of the eye.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The degree of redness of the eye is an important factor as a measure of the health of the eye itself and also from a cosmetic point of view. That is, if the eyes are excessively hyperemic, they do not give a cosmetically good impression.
However, the degree of hyperemia is generally sensory, and depending on the method of hyperemia, there may be a case that the blood is not so much congested, but it is quite congested, and vice versa. Conventional cosmetic treatments for suppressing ocular hyperemia also depend on the senses to some extent. Therefore, a method capable of quantitatively and easily evaluating the degree of ocular hyperemia has been desired.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus which can quantitatively and easily measure the degree of redness of the eye.

[0004]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors take a picture of the white eye part of the eye under a certain condition, and binarize the data of the image, thereby easily and accurately congesting the eye. Was found to be able to measure the degree of

According to the present invention, an eye is shielded from surroundings to block light from entering the surface of the eye from the outside, and the eye is irradiated with indirect light, and the eye is photographed in such a state. The above object has been achieved by providing a method for measuring the degree of hyperemia of an eye, characterized in that a binarization process is performed to calculate an area of a hyperemic portion in a white eye portion of the eyeball.

According to the present invention, there is further provided a shielding unit which shields the periphery of the eye and blocks light from entering the surface of the eyeball from the outside, as a preferable measuring device used for performing the method for measuring the degree of redness of the eye, A light transmitting part provided inside the shielding part so as to irradiate the indirect light to the eye, a light source having an optical path communicating with the light transmitting part, and a photographing for photographing the eye under irradiation of the indirect light And an arithmetic mechanism for calculating the area of the hyperemic portion in the white eye portion of the eye by binarizing the image obtained by the imaging unit. The present invention provides an apparatus for measuring the degree of hyperemia.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, a preferred embodiment of an eye hyperemia measuring apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the eye redness measuring apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the measuring apparatus shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line II in FIG.

The measuring device (hereinafter simply referred to as a measuring device) of the degree of redness of the eye of the present embodiment comprises a photographing mechanism 1 and an arithmetic mechanism (not shown) shown in FIGS.
Both are provided separately. The photographing mechanism 1 includes a main body 10
A shielding portion 20 that is arranged in front of the eye and shields the periphery of the eye and blocks light from entering the eyeball surface from outside, and is provided inside the shielding portion 20 so as to irradiate indirect light to the shielded eye The light transmitting part 30 and the light source 4 whose optical path communicates with the light transmitting part 30
0, and an imaging unit 50 for imaging the eye under irradiation of the indirect light. On the other hand, the operation mechanism is constituted by a personal computer. The photographing mechanism 1 and the arithmetic mechanism are configured to be able to exchange imaging data obtained by the photographing unit 50 electrically or other known means via a cable.

The details of the components constituting the photographing mechanism 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.
Numeral 0 has a slightly flat box shape, and acts as a grip for the measurement person to grip the photographing mechanism 1 during measurement. A triangular pyramid-shaped concave portion 12 is formed in a portion of the front portion 11 of the main body 10 slightly to the right from the vertical center line, and the nose of the subject is accommodated in the concave portion 12 at the time of measurement. It has been made like that. The inside of the main body 10 is hollow, and its inner wall is covered with a highly reflective material 13 such as a metal foil. An arm 14 extends in a horizontal direction from a lower portion on the right side of the main body 10, and a focusing unit 17 including a ball head 15 and a columnar support 16 is provided upright at an end thereof. The ball head 15 is arranged so that the position in the height direction is the same as the position of a lens window 31 described later.

The shielding portion 20 is provided adjacent to and to the left of the concave portion 12 in the front portion of the main body 10. Therefore, as is clear from the positional relationship between the shielding portion 20 and the concave portion 12, according to the device of the present embodiment, the left eye of the subject is a measurement target. The light-shielding portion 20 is made of a light-shielding material, and surrounds a light-transmitting portion 30 to be described later.
No. 0 is formed upright. The upper surface part 21 of the standing shield part 20 has a smooth curved surface shape that can fit the irregular shape around the eye of the subject, and thereby shields the periphery of the eye of the subject during measurement. Thus, the entrance of light from the outside to the surface of the eyeball is blocked.

The light transmitting portion 30 is provided so as to be located inside the shielding portion 20 and protrude into the main body 10. The light transmitting section 30 is composed of four translucent scattering plates, and these translucent scattering plates are arranged vertically and horizontally so as to surround the eye of the subject. Thus, the indirect light is radiated from all directions to the eye of the subject, which is shielded by the shielding unit 20, and it is possible to effectively prevent the surface of the eyeball from being shadowed or halation from occurring. A rectangular portion formed by being surrounded by the four translucent scattering plates is open, and a lens window 31 of an imaging unit 50 described later is opened.
Is composed. The eye of the subject is photographed by the photographing unit 50 through the lens window 31.

The light source 40 is disposed inside the main body 10 on the left side. As described above, the inside of the main body 10 is hollow, and the light path of the light source 40 communicates with the light transmitting unit 30 through the hollow. Further, as described above, since the inside of the main body 10 is covered with the highly reflective material 13,
After being repeatedly reflected inside the main body 10, the light transmitted through the light transmitting unit 30 becomes indirect light, and illuminates the eye of the subject from all directions. Thereby, as described above,
At the time of photographing, it is possible to effectively prevent a shadow or halation from occurring on the surface of the eyeball of the subject, and to obtain a clear image. The type of the light source 40 is not particularly limited, and for example, a fluorescent lamp, a halogen lamp, a xenon lamp, a tungsten lamp, or the like is used. The shape of the light source 40 may be any shape such as a linear shape and a ring shape.
If an annular light source is used, the eye will be placed at the center. In the present embodiment, a case where a linear light source is used will be described as an example. However, even when a ring light source is used, the eyes can be irradiated with indirect light by the same method.

The photographing section 50 is disposed on the back section 18 of the main body 10. An opening communicating with the above-described lens window 31 is formed in the rear portion 18, and the lens portion 51 of the photographing section 50 is fitted into the opening and exposed to the front portion 11 side of the main body 10 through the lens window 31. doing. Lens part 5
1 is in contact with the end face of the translucent scattering plate in the light transmitting section 30, whereby the rear face 18
Direct light entry into the eyeball from the side is blocked. The type of the imaging unit 50 is not particularly limited as long as it can image the eye of the subject, but if a digital type is used, the binarization processing of the imaging data by the arithmetic mechanism described later is performed. It will be easier. The digital photographing unit 50 includes a charge-coupled device (CCD) having a predetermined number of pixels.
Each part of the eye to be measured is imaged on the corresponding pixel, and one image is formed as a whole pixel. The image formed on each pixel is stored as digital data that takes 8 bits for each of the three RGB spectral components, that is, 256-step numerical values from 0 to 255. This data is sent to an arithmetic mechanism, and predetermined binarization processing is performed by a program incorporated in the arithmetic mechanism.

Next, a preferred embodiment of the method for measuring the degree of redness of the eye of the present invention using the measuring apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a method for measuring the degree of redness of the eye using the measuring apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a procedure of binarization processing of imaging data.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the shielding portion 20 of the photographing mechanism 1 is brought into contact with the left eye of the subject to be measured,
It shields the periphery of the eye and blocks light from entering the eyeball surface from outside. At the same time, the light from the light source 40 is
And irradiates the eye from all directions. The eye is photographed by the photographing unit 50 in such a state. When shooting, focus the right eye, which is not the measurement target,
Focusing unit 1 provided on main body 10 in the right direction of the face
Adjust to 7. Accordingly, the focus of the left eye to be measured is also directed to the focusing unit 17 which is the right direction of the face.
As a result, the white-eye portion of the eyeball is more oriented to the lens unit 51 of the photographing unit 50, and the white-eye portion is photographed more. In this case, by providing the focusing unit 17 in the main body 10, many white-eye portions can be easily photographed. However, instead of this, as long as many white-eye portions can be photographed. Instead of providing the focusing unit 17, the eye of the subject may be focused on either the left or right direction of the face during imaging.

The image picked up by the image pickup unit 50 is a color image, and the data of the image picked up is digitized for each of three spectral components of R, G and B. This data is sent to an arithmetic unit (not shown) electrically via a cable or by other known means such as a removable memory card. The arithmetic mechanism is composed of a personal computer as described above, and the personal computer performs the following binarization processing on the data to calculate the area of the hyperemic portion in the white part of the eyeball.

The procedure of the binarization processing by the arithmetic mechanism is as shown in FIG. This binarization process consists of binarizing each pixel into either red or white. That is, first, a white-eye region is selected from the imaging data. The selection of this area is equal to the selection of the pixels of the specific area in the imaging unit 50. Next, for each pixel in the selected area, R, G
And B are read. Normally, the values of R, G and B take 8 bits, that is, numerical values of 256 steps from 0 to 225, but the same processing can be performed in the case of 4 bits or 12 bits.

Each R read for each pixel
With respect to the GB value, the magnitude relationship between the values of R, G, and B is evaluated for each pixel, and a tentative decision is made to binarize each pixel into either red or white. In detail, the magnitude relationship between the value of R and the value of G and the magnitude relationship between the value of R and the value of B are evaluated, and a pixel in which R> G or R> B is temporarily determined to be red. The other pixels are provisionally determined to be white.

Next, with respect to the color of each pixel temporarily determined,
The color is redetermined in relation to the tentative color of the adjacent pixel. More specifically, when five or more of the eight pixels adjacent to the pixel of interest are determined to be red in the above-described provisional determination, the color of the pixel of interest is determined. Is re-determined as red (even if the color of the pixel is determined to be white in the above-described provisional determination), and otherwise re-determined as white (the color of the pixel is determined in the above-described provisional determination) Is determined to be red). This operation is performed for all pixels in the selected area.

Finally, the color of each re-determined pixel is finally determined in relation to the re-determined color of an adjacent pixel. Specifically, for the pixel of interest,
If six or more of the pixels adjacent to it are determined to be white in the above re-determination, the color of the pixel of interest is finally determined to be white, otherwise, The final judgment is red. This operation is performed for all pixels in the selected area.

In this way, it is determined whether all the pixels in the selected area are red or white, and all the pixels are binarized to either red or white.
The pixel finally determined to be red corresponds to a portion of the eyeball that is reddened, and the portion that is finally determined to be white corresponds to a portion that is not reddened. Therefore, the number of pixels in the red portion corresponds to the area of the hyperemic portion in the eyeball. And
The ratio (%) of the number of pixels finally determined to be red to the total number of pixels in the selected area is calculated, and this ratio is defined as the degree of redness of the eye.

Various treatments can be performed from a cosmetic point of view according to the value of the degree of redness of the eye thus measured. For example, when applying a cold patch to the eye to reduce redness of the eye, depending on the degree of hyperemia based on the above value, select and use a cold patch containing a drug having an appropriate cooling capacity be able to.

Although the method and apparatus for measuring the degree of hyperemia of the eye according to the present invention have been described based on the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Changes are possible. For example, although the measuring device of the above embodiment is for measuring the left eye,
According to the device in which each part of the device is arranged symmetrically, the right eye can be measured. In addition, by integrating the measuring device of the above-described embodiment and a device in which each part of the device is arranged symmetrically, the left and right eyes can be measured. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the photographing mechanism and the arithmetic mechanism are separate bodies. Alternatively, the two mechanisms may be integrated and compacted to make them convenient for transportation and carrying. Further, the binarization processing in the arithmetic mechanism is not limited to the above-described method, and various changes can be made.

[0024]

EXAMPLES The effects of the method for measuring the degree of redness of the eye of the present invention using the apparatus for measuring the degree of redness of the eye of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to examples.

[Embodiment 1] Photographing mechanism 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3
Was brought into close contact with the left eye of the subject as shown in FIG. 4, and the white eye was photographed in a state where light penetration into the measurement site was blocked. At this time, the subject was asked to focus the eye on the focusing unit 17 so that many white eyes were photographed. The degree of congestion for performing the above-described binarization processing was calculated using image data obtained by imaging using a personal computer as an arithmetic mechanism. After the measurement, the subject was gazed at the computer display for 8 hours, and then the same measurement was performed again to calculate the degree of congestion. As a result, the data shown in Table 1 below was obtained.

[0026]

[Table 1]

According to the results shown in Table 1 above, it was found that the degree of redness of the eye of the subject was increased due to prolonged overuse of the eyes, and from this result, the degree of redness of the eyes of the present invention was measured. The effectiveness of the method for measuring ocular hyperemia of the present invention using the device is clear.

[0028]

According to the method and the apparatus for measuring the degree of redness of the eye of the present invention, the degree of redness of the eye can be measured simply and quantitatively in a short time. In addition, since the measuring device is simply brought into contact with the eye of the subject at the time of measurement, the physical burden on the subject is small.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the eye hyperemia measuring apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the measuring device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line II in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a method for measuring the degree of redness of the eye using the measuring device of the embodiment shown in FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a procedure of binarization processing of imaging data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Imaging mechanism 10 Main body 20 Shielding part 30 Light transmission part 40 Light source 50 Imaging part

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method for shielding the periphery of an eye to block light from entering the surface of the eye from outside and irradiating the eye with indirect light.
A method for measuring the degree of redness of an eye, characterized in that the eye is photographed in such a state, and the imaging is binarized to calculate the area of the hyperemic portion in the white eye portion of the eyeball. 2. The measurement of the degree of redness of the eye according to claim 1, wherein the eye is focused on one of the left and right directions of the face so that a large amount of the white eye is photographed during the photographing. Method. 3. A shielding portion for shielding the periphery of the eye to block light from entering the eyeball surface from the outside, and light provided inside the shielding portion so as to irradiate the shielded eye with indirect light. A transmitting unit, a light source having an optical path communicating with the light transmitting unit, and a photographing mechanism having a photographing unit that photographs the eye under irradiation of the indirect light,
And an arithmetic mechanism for calculating the area of the hyperemic portion in the white part of the eyeball by performing binarization processing on the image obtained by the photographing unit. 4. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein a focusing unit for the eye is provided integrally with the photographing mechanism in a right or left direction of the photographing unit so that a large area of the white eye is photographed. Item 4. The measuring device for degree of hyperemia of an eye according to Item 3. 5. The measuring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the photographing mechanism and the arithmetic mechanism are provided separately.