Stephen Boppart led a team that developed a new medical imaging device that can see individual cells in the back of the eye to better diagnose and track disease. From left: postdoctoral researcher Yuan-Zhi Liu, graduate student Fredrick A. South, and Stephen Boppart.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Eye doctors soon could use computing power to help them see individual cells in the back of a patient's eye, thanks to imaging technology developed by engineers at the University of Illinois. Such detailed pictures of the cells, blood vessels and nerves at the back of the eye could enable earlier diagnosis and better treatment for degenerative eye and neurological diseases. The technique applies adaptive optics - the method astronomers use to correct telescope images so they can more clearly see stars beyond the twinkling - to the instruments that scan the retina at the back of the eye. However, the Illinois team does the correction computationally, instead of using complex hardware. Led by electrical and computer engineering professor Stephen Boppart , the research team published its work Photonics. "The eye has always been a bit of a challenge to image.
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