Abstract: The invention relates to the art of corneal topography. More specifically, the invention provides many methods and apparatuses for advancing the ease and accuracy of corneal topography. In addition to a front-view camera, one embodiment provides a side (temporal) view camera for viewing the cornea or other reflective surface. The side-view camera may capture a true image of the cornea as well as a reflected placido pattern. The information contained in these images provides capability to automatically find the apex, location of the limbus, vertical profile and curvature out to the limbus. These abilities lead to improved methods for autocalibration and autopositioning as well as other advantages in the field of corneal mapping.

Abstract: A method for analysis of the curvature of the surface of a cornea using a checkered placido comprises, projecting the image of the checkered placido onto a patient's cornea, detecting the image of the checkered placido reflected off of the cornea, detecting a plurality of nodal points from the reflected image, determining the mean curvature at a plurality of nodal points and analyzing the mean curvature at a plurality of nodal points in order to produce a graphic display of the estimated actual curvature of the cornea.

Abstract: A novel method and apparatus is presented for the performance of refractive surgery. The success of refractive surgery, particularly astigmatic refractive surgery varies with the intuition and skill of the surgeon yielding a consistency of results more typical of an than science. The invention comprises methods and apparatus that quantify refractive surgery by determining the nature of incisions based upon traceable and repeatable factors. The invention incorporates hardware and software for use in the data management.