Portable Dry Eye Diagnosis Instrument Using Near-infrared Image Procession

To address the limitations of current dry eye diagnostic equipment in the market, such as high cost, large volume, and low accuracy of detection results due to the use of the frame difference method, this study proposes portable dry eye diagnostic equipment based on near-infrared images. The device, which uses a Windows computer based on near-infrared imaging, is portable and can be used to detect dry eye symptoms such as the tear film break-up time (TBUT), meibomian gland (MG), and tear meniscus height (TMH). The fractal box dimension method was used to detect TBUT to avoid the inaccuracy of the frame difference method. MG was detected using near-infrared (850 nm) fill light imaging technology, and the contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) algorithm was used to highlight the gland region, which can detect the area missing rate more accurately. To verify the accuracy of the test results, 50 samples were tested and compared with the CSO Antares instrument from Italy and the ICP OSA from SBM. The correlation coefficient between the TBUT and TMH measurements of the device and the results of the two controls was P < 0.05, whereas the detection results were consistent; the accuracy and specificity of MG were 86% and 84%, respectively. The experimental results showed that the device can be used as a screening and diagnostic device for dry eye disease in eye and vision optics centers.