Hyperspectral imaging of the human iris

We describe all optical system and a method for measuring the human iris spectral reflectance in vivo by spectral imaging andysis. It is important to monitor age related changes in the reflectance properties or the iris as they area prognostic factor for several eye pathologies. In this paper, we report the outcomes of our most rocent research, resulting from the improvement of our imaging System. In particular, a custom tunable light source was developed: the images are now acquired in the spectral range 440-900 run. With this system, we are able, to obtain a, spectral resolution of 20nm, while each image of 2048 x 1536 pixels has a spatial resolution of 10.7 mu m. The results suggest that the instrument could be exploited for measuring iris pigmentation changes over time. These measurements could provide new diagnostic capabilities in ophthalmology. Further studies are required to determine the measurements' repeatability and to develop a spectral library for results evaluation and to detect differences among subsequent screenings of the same subject.