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Project

Otoscopic profilometry: a new optical technique to quantitatively measure human eardrum deformation in-vivo, in 3D and in real-time.

The human eardrum is a conically shaped thin membrane which separates the outer ear from the middle ear. It conducts sound vibrations from the external ear canal to the ossicles and protects the middle ear from infections. The 3D shape of the eardrum plays a crucial role in this process and any structural change to its topography is an important indicator for existing or impending pathology or hearing impairment. In previous work, I have demonstrated that 3D shape data of a cadaveric human eardrum can be obtained by using a modified clinical otoscope that simultaneously projects structured light patterns onto the eardrum and records them with a digital camera, placed at a relative angle to the projection axis. By employing a high-speed camera and by using parallel programming techniques, the digital processing pipeline is sufficiently fast to extract full-field surface shape deformations of a dye-coated eardrum in real-time. In the proposed research project, I will redesign both the optical imaging engine and the hardware setup of the otoscopic device to increase its imaging resolution when applied to uncoated eardrums. This way, the non-invasive imaging technique can be employed in the clinical setup and dynamic 3D eardrum shape data of living patients can be gathered for the first time. I will validate tympano-topography as a diagnostic tool in the ENT-office in the detection of early-stage middle ear inflammation, cholesteatoma and Eustachian tube (dys)functioning.
Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:OPTICAL TECHNIQUES
Disciplines:Applied mathematics in specific fields, Materials science and engineering
Project type:Collaboration project