18th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Amsterdam 1996 1.3.

3: Sensory and Neuromuscular Diagnostic Instrumentation and Data Analysis I

SCANNER FOR TRAC

' Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Canterbury

Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering, Christchurch Hospital 3 Department of Neurology, Christchurch Hospital Christchurch, New Zealand
movements of the eye.

Abstract A novel system has been developed to provide noninvasive and simultaneous measures of horimtal, vertical, and torsional (rotation about the visual axis) movements of the eye. It uses a flyingspot laser scanner to selectively image landmarks on the eye. A horizontal scan through the centre o the pupil locates f the left and right edges of the pupil allowing horimtal eye position to be estimated. Similarly, vertical eye position is estimated from a vertical scan through the pupil. A circular scan records striations on the iris from which torsional movement can be estimated from cross-emelation of successive circular scans. The i"ent can measure eye movements with a bandwidth of 25 Hz through a range of movement i excess of M "horimtally and m"vertically. n I Prehnhary trials have demonstrated the feasibility of using a flying spot scanner to track eye movements. It should prove a valuable t d for the investigation of eye movements in neurological disorders.

E. SYSTEMDESCIUPTION
The prototype eye-tracker Figs 1 & 2) uses a 1 mW red laser (A= 650 nm). After attenuation by a neutral density filter, scan mirrors, and a half-silvered mirror, the beam gives a measured power at the eye of 50 pW and a spot size of 81 pm. The position of the beam on the front of the eye is determined by two orthogonal beam-steering mirrors attached to two SUVG controllers driven by analog signals f o the Pentium E ' s D/A rm board (Fig. 2). As the flying spot moves m s the eye, the os amount of light reflected varies according to the reflectance under the spot. The receiver comprises an array of four photodiodes (two summed pairs), and two channels of transimpedance preamplifiers, variablegain amplifiers, anti-aliasing filters, and A/D converters (Fig. 2). Dual-channel sampling from the photodiodes was implemented to overcome the deleterious effect of glare artifacts due to specular reflections. The laser Scanner approach was chosen so as to selectively image landmarks on the eye. A horizontal scan through the centre of the pupil locates the left and right edges of the pupil allowing horizontal eye position to be estimated. Similarly, vertical eye position is estimated kom a vertical scan through the pupil. Second-order edge detection of the pupil has been

I.

INTRODUCTION

YE movement recordings are an important diagnostic tool for assessing vestibular disease and other neurological disorders. Horizontal and vertical eye movements can be measured by electro-oculography or by tracking the position of the limbus optically. Torsion of the eye (rotation about the visual axis, typically within a range of +lo") is more difficult to
measure. Both smooth eye movements and nystagmus can involve a torsional component. In addition, the eye exhibits a normal vestibulo-ocular reflex, called counter-roll, about the torsional axis in response to head tilt. Torsional dysfunction is commonly encountered in patients with vestibular and brainstem disorders. A a m " m n method for measuring torsional eye movements uses magnetic search coils attached to a contact lens [l]. Its application is, however, severely limited by its invasiveness, high cost, and the need to immobilise the head. Non-invasive videobased methods have been developed to measure torsional eye movements but such systems sample too slowly to measure fast components of saccades and nystagmus [2-4]. We have developed a system which uses a flying-spot laserscanner to provide non-invasive, high bandwidth, and simultaneous measures of horizontal, vertical, and torsional

* e-mail: r.jones@chmeds.ac.nz

Figure 1. Ciose-up view of prototype eye-traeker.

0-7803-3811-1/97/$10.00 OIEEE

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18th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Amsterdam 1996 1.3.3: Sensory and Neuromuscular Diagnostic Instrumentation and Data Analysis I

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Anti-Nipring Filten

Figure 2. Block diagram of laser-spot eye-tracker.

incorporated in both the horizontal and vertical scans to minimise the effect of any marked gradients across the scans. Finally, a circular scan records striations on the iris from which torsional movement can be estimated fiom crass-correlation of successive circular scans. The eye is scanned at 170 cycles/s. Tracking the pupil has been optimised by the use of a Kalman filter based upon a position-velocity-acceleration state-model.

range in excess of k40 horizontally and G O vertically, and with an accuracy of rt9 minutes of arc horizontally, *11 minutes of arc vertically, and *25 minutes of arc in torsion. It has a bandwidth of 25 Hz and is 7 dl3 down at 50 Hz.

IV. DISCUSSION
By using partial images to track eye movement, the amount of data which must be collected, stored, and processed is two orders of magnitude less than that required if full raster images were used. This allowed a significantly higher bandwidth to be obtained than that possible with a system which tracks full raster video images of the eye. Other features in the current eye-tracker, important in the investigation of several neurological conditions, include ability (a) for subjects head to be moved freely and (ii) to observe eye movements in response to a variety of visual stimuli. Preliminary trials have demonstrated the feasibility of using a flying spot scanner to track eye movements. Further developments are well underway aimed at increasing the instruments eye tracking accuracy and robustness and, hence, clinical and research utility.

m. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
The instrument can measure eye movements (Fig. 3) through a

Vertical

REFERENCES
torsional nystagmus

[ l ] D.A. Robinson, A method of measuring eye movement using a scleral search coil in a magnetic field, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.,
vol. 10, pp. 137-145, 1963. [2] M. Hatiaman and D.J. Anderson, Design considerations for a realtime ocular counterroll instrument, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 30, No. 5, 1983. [3] E. Suaste, C. Cajica and P. Rivera, Video-oculography for measurement of torsional nystagmus, Proc. Inr. Con$ IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc., San Diego, pp. 373-374, 1993. [4] J.E. Bos and B. de Gnaf, Ocular torsion quantification with video images, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 41, pp. 35 1-357, 1994.

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Time (s) Figure 3. Horizontal, vertical, and torsional eye movements during ocular counter-rolling in a normal subject.

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