Even though robots don’t have eyes with retinas, the key to helping them see and interact with the world more naturally and safely may rest in optical coherence tomography (OCT) machines commonly found in the offices of ophthalmologists. One of the imaging technologies that many robotics companies are integrating into their sensor packages is Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR for short. Currently commanding great attention and investment from self-driving car developers, the approach essentially works like radar, but instead of sending out broad radio waves and looking for reflections, it uses short pulses of light from lasers. Traditional ...

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a method for increasing the depth at which optical coherence tomography (OCT) can image structures beneath skin. The gold standard for imaging and diagnosing diseases within the retina, OCT has yet to find widespread use as an imaging technique for other parts of the body due to its inability to return clear images from more than a millimeter beneath the skin’s surface. Duke researchers found that tilting the light source and detector used in the technique increases OCT’s imaging depth by almost 50%, putting skin diagnoses within reach. The “dual-axis” approach ...

Engineers and ophthalmologists at Duke University have developed a robotic imaging tool that can automatically detect and scan a patient’s eyes for markers of different eye diseases. The new tool, which combines an imaging scanner with a robotic arm, can automatically track and image a patient’s eyes in less than a minute, and produce images that are as clear as the traditional scanners in specialized eye clinics. Their paper appeared July 12 in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Physicians and researchers use optical coherence tomography, or OCT, to diagnose various diseases in the eye, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related ...

Developing Low-Cost Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopes to Combat Diabetic Retinopathy December 17, 2020 Hafeez Dhalla is using materials science and 3D printing to develop a new instrument for eye imaging that can combat a common cause of adult-onset blindness Hafeez Dhalla , assistant research professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, is no stranger to the Harrington Engineering Quadrangle, nor to its reputation for innovation in the health care arena.

Sina Farsiu, the Paul Ruffin Scarborough Distinguished Associate Professor of Engineering, has been named a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA). Farsiu was cited for his “outstanding contributions to optical image processing and biophotonics.” Farsiu is the director of the Vision and Image Processing Laboratory in Duke’s Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Ophthalmology, where he has been instrumental in introducing modern image processing and computation methods into the field of ophthalmic imaging. He is a pioneer in development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can automatically detect multiple diseases of the eye based on optical coherence tomography ...

Artificial intelligence is shaping the future of eye care—and Duke is leading the way. Artificial intelligence (AI) leverages the growing power and speed of computers to solve complex problems. AI is transforming medical research and clinical practice—and ophthalmology is leading the way. “One of the most successful ways that AI has been applied recently is in the area of ‘computer vision,’ which is the assessment and interpretation of images,” explains Felipe Medeiros, MD, PhD, Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Professor of Ophthalmology. “We can apply sophisticated AI algorithms, such as ‘deep learning’ neural networks, which are capable of very ...

Sina Farsiu , the Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Engineering, and Jeffrey Krolik , professor of electrical and computer engineering, have been named fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Each year, following a rigorous evaluation procedure, the IEEE Fellow Committee recommends a select group of recipients for elevation to IEEE fellow. Less than 0.1 percent of voting members are selected annually for this honor. With appointments in biomedical engineering, ophthalmology, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science, Farsiu was recognized ...

esearchers have developed a way to perform optical coherence tomography (OCT) in hard-to-reach areas of the body such as joints. The advance could help bring this high-resolution biomedical imaging technique to new surgical and medical applications. OCT can image structures measured in microns, making it ideal for seeing subtle changes in tissue that might indicate disease or damage. Although OCT is now the standard of care in ophthalmology, making a high-quality OCT instrument compact enough for use inside the body has been challenging. In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Optics Letters, researchers from Duke University report how they used a ...

Sina Farsiu , an associate professor in the department of biomedical engineering (BME) at Duke University, received the “Outstanding Member of the Editorial Board” award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Signal Processing Society in recognition for his exemplary role as the senior area editor of IEEE’s publication, Transactions on Image Processing (TIP). The award is given to editorial board members who have displayed notable excellence in the timeliness of the review process, effective communication with authors and reviewers, and a willingness to go the extra distance to serve the society’s publications. Farsiu was one of ...

Sina Farsiu , an associate professor at Duke University with appointments in biomedical engineering, ophthalmology, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science, has won the 2017 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Foundation/Pfizer Ophthalmics Carl Camras Translational Research Award . Reserved for scientists under age 45, the award honors excellence in research and fundamental scientific discoveries, concepts and novel technologies. The discovery that each recipient is nominated for must also have led to, or have promise of leading to, clinical applications. Farsiu will receive the award, which includes a $12,000 honorarium, at the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting held ...

Sina Farsiu wants to figure out how to peer into your soul . . . or at least your brain. An expert in designing computer image processing algorithms, Farsiu is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Duke Medicine who recently accepted a primary appointment in the Pratt biomedical engineering department with the hopes of strengthening collaborations across the university. “When President Bush said he looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and got a sense of his soul, he was actually on to something,” said Farsiu, who has a long history of collaborating with peers in Duke’s engineering school. “The retina is part ...