I-Corps: Low-complexity Asynchronous Re-sampler for Optical Coherence Tomography

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is based on significant improvements in accuracy and cost reduction of eye-related disease diagnosis by providing a high-quality, high-speed tissue imaging solution. Specifically, the project will shorten clinical scan time, and as a result, increase image resolution while reducing the number of required patient clinic visits. These improvements directly lower associated medical costs. The project goal is to create a new-generation of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), a technique that is used in the clinical practice to provide cross-sectional images of the retina. Currently, the biggest challenge faced by OCT clinical applications is their slow scan speed, which leads to low image resolutions and therefore unsatisfying clinical experience. A high-quality, high-speed signal processing tool is needed for reliable clinical decision-making and disease monitoring with OCT systems. This I-Corps project will further develop a new-generation of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). The I-Corps project will explore the commercial potential of the innovation, a system capable of decreasing the signal processing time of swept source OCT (SS-OCT) devices by up to ten times according to lab tests. This device is based on a family of novel signal processing algorithms that significantly improve the accuracy and speed required for the medical images to be acquired. The SS-OCT platform will be enhanced in terms of the image acquisition speed, accuracy, and cost. This, in turn, will decrease the number of visits a patient needs to make to an ophthalmology clinic while increasing the overall clinic capacity to attend visiting patients per day, generating more revenue for those centers.