Revolutionary 3-D retinal imaging technology developed by MIT

A revolutionary hand-held scanner developed by researchers at MIT scans the entire retina in just seconds using 3-D imaging technology. The practical, hand-held scanner will enable even primary care providers to detect a number of blinding eye diseases such as macular degeneration, and glaucoma in their earliest stages. Using 3-D imaging and movement-correction, this new scanner produces a clear, specific profile of the human eye. The imaging technique that is used is known as optical coherence tomography (OCT) which is similar to ultrasound and radar imaging. An infrared beam is projected onto the eye. The resulting "echo" from the beam creates a cross-sectional structure of the retina. Currently, most of the technology available can only be utilized by eye specialists while the new portable scanner will allow primary care providers to provide routine screenings to their patients thus increasing the number of early diagnoses.