Robotically aligned optical coherence tomography with 5 degree of freedom eye tracking for subject motion and gaze compensation.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has revolutionized diagnostics in ophthalmology. However, OCT requires a trained operator and patient cooperation to carefully align a scanner with the subject's eye and orient it in such a way that it images a desired region of interest at the retina. With the goal of automating this process of orienting and aligning the scanner, we developed a robot-mounted OCT scanner that automatically aligned with the pupil while matching its optical axis with the target region of interest at the retina. The system used two 3D cameras for face tracking and three high-resolution 2D cameras for pupil and gaze tracking. The tracking software identified 5 degrees of freedom for robot alignment and ray aiming through the ocular pupil: 3 degrees of translation (x, y, z) and 2 degrees of orientation (yaw, pitch). We evaluated the accuracy, precision, and range of our tracking system and demonstrated imaging performance on free-standing human subjects. Our results demonstrate that the system stabilized images and that the addition of gaze tracking and aiming allowed for region-of-interest specific alignment at any gaze orientation within a 28° range.