referring now to fig4 of the drawings , there is shown schematically a non - contact tonometer 10 for measuring iop of a cornea c . non - contact tonometer 10 is conventional in that it includes a fluid discharge nozzle 12 aligned with cornea c along a test axis a . nozzle 12 cooperates with a motorized pump mechanism ( not shown ) in flow communication therewith to generate and discharge a fluid pulse of increasing force toward a corneal pole p defined by the intersection of test axis a with the surface of cornea c , as is well known in the art of non - contact tonometry . the fluid pulse acts to progressively deform cornea c from a state of convexity through a state of applanation , as described above in connection with prior art fig1 a and 1b . in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention , non - contact tonometer 10 includes novel applanation detection means , generally identified by the reference numeral 20 , for monitoring corneal deformation caused by an incident fluid pulse . applanation detection means 20 is novel because it is a non - telecentric system utilizing a detector array 24 for receiving corneally reflected light , as opposed to a telecentric system utilizing a collector lens , a pin - hole aperture in the lens &# 39 ; focal plane , and a single detector element for receiving corneally reflected light . as will be apparent from the coming description , the non - telecentric system of the present invention permits instrument alignment requirements to be relaxed without sacrificing measurement accuracy . applanation detection means 20 may be housed in optical grade plastic or mounted on a test portion of the instrument to be free standing in air . an infra - red emitter 22 is positioned on one side of test axis a for directing an oblique , collimated beam of light approximately 3 mm in diameter toward cornea c , and more precisely toward corneal pole p , for reflection by the corneal surface . light rays from emitter 22 are &# 34 ; fanned out &# 34 ; or dispersed upon reflection by the curved corneal surface ; however , dispersion of the corneally reflected rays is at a minimum at the moment applanation , as discussed above . it is the function of detector array 24 to measure light reflected by the cornea for determination of a peak measurement corresponding to applanation . in the preferred embodiments , detector array 24 is a four - by - four area array having sixteen photodiode elements 24a - 24p on its detector surface , as shown in fig5 . detector array 24 is orientated in angular symmetry with emitter 22 about test axis a , with its detector surface facing cornea c to receive light rays reflected by the corneal surface . detector array 24 is preferably a silicon photodiode area array of a type manufactured by hamamatsu photonics k . k . having high spectral sensitivity in the infra - red range , however a ccd or other suitable area detector may be used in practicing the present invention . the presently indicated size of each photodiode element 24a - 24p is approximately 1 mm square , whereby the entire detector array 24 is approximately 4 mm square . since the detector array includes sixteen detector elements 24a - 24p each capable of detecting radiant power from corneally reflected light at a unique location during deformation of cornea c , the need of the prior art to carefully control the location of the radiant power peak through precise x , y , and z alignment of test axis a and discharge nozzle 12 relative to corneal pole p is substantially reduced . more specifically , the present invention dictates alignment ranges of δx ≦ 1 . 0 mm , δx ≦ 1 . 0 mm , and δz ≦ 2 . 0 mm , where x is side - to - side , y is vertical , and z is distance from the patient . this offers a considerable improvement over the alignment requirements of the prior art instrument mentioned in the above background . in order to provide a scaling function on the detector side of cornea c , a beam expander 26 is aligned with detector array 24 in reverse orientation such that it acts as a &# 34 ; beam contractor &# 34 ;. referring to fig6 beam contractor 26 reduces the cross - sectional area of the corneally reflected beam by a scaling factor appropriate for the size of detector array 24 . a lens array 28 and an associated pinhole aperture array 30 are preferably aligned in the scaled beam path in front of detector array 24 to improve the time resolution of the system . lens array 28 includes a plurality of lens elements arranged in an array configuration corresponding to the configuration of detector elements 24a - 24p making up detector array 24 , i . e . a four - by - four configuration . likewise , aperture array 30 includes a plurality of individual pinhole apertures arranged in corresponding configuration . the lens array elements and associated pinhole apertures cooperate to provide sharper signal curves at the detector array elements , such that the time when a peak signal is received by a given detector element may be determined more precisely . output from each of the sixteen parallel signal channels of detector array 24 is sampled at a rate of 500 khz by multiplexer 40 driven by timing generator 42 . sampled signal information indicating radiant power received by the respective detector array elements 24a - 24p is amplified by amplifier 44 , converted to digital form by a - d converter 46 , and stored in memory 48 . as a result , sixteen signal curves are stored in memory ; each signal curve represents the intensity of light received by detector array 24 at a unique array location as a function of time . fig7 a - 7p illustrate typical signal curves generated by detector array elements 24a - 24p for an arbitrarily chosen imperfect alignment condition within the tolerated alignment ranges set forth above for the present invention . as may be seen , the signal curve of fig7 d exhibits the highest peak , and thus array element 24d corresponds to the location of reflected beam convergence associate with the applanation event . the signal curves of fig7 c , 7g , and 7h from detector array elements 24c , 24g , and 24h , which are adjacent to detector array element 24d , exhibit somewhat lower peaks with diminished resolution as compared with the signal curve from detector array element 24d . further signal degradation is exhibited as distance from detector array element 24d increases . the stored signal curves are evaluated by cpu 50 to determine an optimal signal curve having the highest peak . in the above example , the optimal signal curve is that illustrated in fig7 d . this optimal signal curve is analyzed to determine the moment of applanation based on the peak signal , as is currently done in prior art instruments having a single detector element generating only one signal curve . the interval of time necessary to achieve applanation , or the pump plenum pressure recorded at the moment of applanation , is then used as a correlate of iop pursuant to known practice . where the measurement system is scaled at 128 μsec per mmhg ( units for iop ), the overall sampling rate of 32 μsec ( 2 μsec × 16 channels ) gives a resolution of 0 . 25 mmhg . since the use of a detector array having a plurality of discreet array elements involves the possibility that the converged beam may straddle a boundary between adjacent array elements , whereby the converged beam strikes from two to four different array elements , evaluation of the signal information preferably accounts for this possibility . fig5 shows dots representing thirty - three different border location possibilities for the incident converged beam on four - by - four detector array 24 . for each of these possibilities , a secondary signal curve is generated by adding signals from the involved detector array elements . for example , a secondary signal curve is generated to account for the two - way border between detector array elements 24a and 24b by summing the respective signals from these detector array elements . likewise , a secondary signal curve is generated to account for the four - way border at the junction of detector array elements 24a , 24b , 24e , and 24f . the thirty - three secondary signal curves may be stored in memory 48 and evaluated by cpu 50 along with the sixteen primary signal curves taken directly from each respective detector array element to determine the optimal signal curve . display 52 reports measurement output to the operator . as an alternative to storing the signal information in memory for evaluation by cpu 50 , real time evaluation of the signal information may be conducted using a peak detector circuit 60 as illustrated in fig8 . signals from timing generator 42 drive counters 62 and the sampling of detector array elements 24a - 24p . each time peak detector 60 indicates a new high signal from a detector array element , the counter and signal data are held by data latches 64 . once a peak signal is determined , i . e . when a subsequent sweep of detector array 24 fails to yield a new peak signal , the peak signal and counter information are evaluated by cpu 50 to determine the time of applanation for correlation to iop .
a non - contact tonometer is improved by providing a non - telecentric applanation detection system enabling relaxation of instrument alignment requirements during testing . in a preferred embodiment , the applanation detection system comprises an emitter for directing an obliquely incident beam of light for reflection by the cornea , and a detector array having a plurality of photosensitive detector array elements located to receive corneally reflected light . the detector array generates a plurality of signal curves for light energy received at different locations on the array as a function of time , and the signal curves are evaluated to determine an optimal signal curve which best indicates the moment of applanation .