Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Optical coherence tomography...

Optical coherence tomography...  Yesterday Debbie went in to our local optometrist for a routine eye exam.  One of the instruments the doctor used on her was an optical coherence tomography (OCT) “camera”.  This device looked through her eye to image her retina in three dimensions, viewable in “slices” very much like the one at right.

The OCT device uses computational tomography, a fancy way of saying that it makes heavy use of computing power to present the 3D images in a usable way.  I was amazed that the sophisticated laser and other optics, along with a powerful computer and fancy software, could all be purchased for under $50,000.  Even though I'm a technology guy myself, I still can't quite wrap my brain around the incredibly rapid advances.  I wouldn't have guessed you could buy this capability for under a half million dollars.  At the rate this seems to be going, you'll probably be able to do it on your iPhone 8, with a $10 laser/lens attachment, using voice control :)

No comments:

Post a Comment