RETINAL VASCULATURE IMAGE ACQUISITION APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

The present invention creates a permanent record of an animal through a seriesof steps including, preliminarily acquiring an image ofthe retinal vasculature of the animal of interest; digitizing that image ifthe image is not a digital image; analyzing the image to determineif the image is satisfactory for further analysis; storing the image; andanalyzing the image for unique anatomical landmarks. The imageand data gathered therefrom may be stored in a database for later retrievaland comparison against other images. The data gathered fromthe image may be compared against other stored data in the database todetermine the identity of the animal. Preferably, the system wouldalso include a global positioning system ("GPS") device which wouldsimultaneously time and date stamp the acquired image as well asstamp the image with the location where the imaging took place by recordingthe latitude and longitude of that location.