Medical Robotics Magazine

The Medical Robotics Magazine has published an interesting article about The Imaging Source cameras in the field of optometry.

Please take a look the complete report in the Medical Robotics Magazine or read below:

Manufacturer of Vision Components for Robotic Assembly Lines May Add an Optometry Application

by John Otrompke

The Imaging Source, a manufacturer of vision components based in Charlotte, North Carolina, may be adding an optometric tool to the list of health care applications in which its products are used.

While cameras and other equipment from The Imaging Source are used in several medical applications, "the biggest sector in the medical industry that is starting to use commercial cameras is the field of optometry and ophthalmology," said John W. Berryman, general manager at The Imaging Source.

Cameras from the Imaging Source, are sometimes purchased by integrators to build home-spun robotic assembly-lines. One such company is Industrial Dynamics, based in Torrence, California, a bottle inspection company.

"They build their own assembly line from scratch, using a product of ours called a QC camera, rather than just buying a robot from a third party for $150,000," explained Berryman, who was a physics professor at Florida Atlantic University between 1994 and 2007.

Inspection companies like Industrial Dynamics use the equipment in automation which inspects blister packs, spectroscopy as well as machine vision. "They have to database every bottle, to make sure it's filled with pills, and take a picture of the bar code," explained Berryman, who presented the company's equipment at the recent AUTOMATE conference in Chicago.

In May, Berryman said, the company awaits the announcement of a medical abstract describing the beginning of a clinical trial using a 1/3" CCD camera (model DMK 31AG03) from The Imaging Source in an optometric context. The abstract will likely be presented at this year's meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology ( ARVO) in Fort Lauderdale, Berryman said.

Other medical applications of the company's equipment include use in dentistry, where the devices are used by manufacturer Periogen in a device used to look "under the gums," according to Berryman.

Another company in Canada uses model number DMK 31BF03-Z2 in conjunction with phosphorescence angiography to examine cardiac tissue for infection, Berryman said. "That model is the only fully digital camera with an intergrated optical zoom lens on the market," he added.

The Canadian company just started mass production of the product, Berryman said.