Short description:

This book presents a new view of symbiotic technology transfer between different fields in the optical sciences. For example, adaptive optics were initially developed for military research programs seeking to correct the effects of atmospheric fluctuations on telescopes. The technology was subsequently transferred to optical microscopes, and then finally used in ophthalmic imaging devices to image photoreceptors in the living human retina. This book examines various recent and historical technology transfers among the optical sciences, and attempts to answer the following questions: What are the mathematical and the physical foundations of these technology advances? What events and influences (military requirements, new journals, new funding sources, the internet, etc.) made the technologies and their transfer possible? What was the impact of technology transfer on the development of optical science? What role did the human eye and visual system play in technology development? This book examines how innovations propagate from one field to another, illustrating the benefits of cross-disciplinary collaboration. 
 
This book is about curiosity, skepticism, innovation, and creativity in science and technology, and explores practices that advance innovation and those that inhibit innovation. Analyses of some selected, pertinent case studies highlight the roles of unique individuals who were able to make the journey from initial concept to widespread clinical acceptance of their instruments. What are the common factors of their education, experiences, and approaches that resulted in their inventions and innovations?

This book is intended to inspire and encourage those who dream of advancing the diagnostics and the treatment of diseases through new medical devices. It also addresses budding startup dreamers, venture capitalists, research directors, and funding agency administrators by providing new insights into practices that promote and inhibit innovation. This book should be of interest to scientists and researchers in many fields of optics, as well as technical policy makers at funding institutions.

Long description:

This book presents a new view of symbiotic technology transfer between different fields in the optical sciences. For example, adaptive optics were initially developed for military research programs seeking to correct the effects of atmospheric fluctuations on telescopes. The technology was subsequently transferred to optical microscopes, and then finally used in ophthalmic imaging devices to image photoreceptors in the living human retina. This book examines various recent and historical technology transfers among the optical sciences, and attempts to answer the following questions: What are the mathematical and the physical foundations of these technology advances? What events and influences (military requirements, new journals, new funding sources, the internet, etc.) made the technologies and their transfer possible? What was the impact of technology transfer on the development of optical science? What role did the human eye and visual system play in technology development? This book examines how innovations propagate from one field to another, illustrating the benefits of cross-disciplinary collaboration. 
 
This book is about curiosity, skepticism, innovation, and creativity in science and technology, and explores practices that advance innovation and those that inhibit innovation. Analyses of some selected, pertinent case studies highlight the roles of unique individuals who were able to make the journey from initial concept to widespread clinical acceptance of their instruments. What are the common factors of their education, experiences, and approaches that resulted in their inventions and innovations?

This book is intended to inspire and encourage those who dream of advancing the diagnostics and the treatment of diseases through new medical devices. It also addresses budding startup dreamers, venture capitalists, research directors, and funding agency administrators by providing new insights into practices that promote and inhibit innovation. This book should be of interest to scientists and researchers in many fields of optics, as well as technical policy makers at funding institutions.

Table of Contents:

Part I Practices that Inhibit Invention, Discovery, and Innovation and the Development of Science and Technology.- 1 Authority: Experts and Consensus as Barriers to Invention, Discovery, and Innovation.- 2 Authority: Government’s Science and Technology Policy and its Consequences as Barriers to Invention, Discovery, and Innovation.- 3 Authority: Expert Opinion, Consensus, and its Consequences as Barriers to Invention, Discovery, and Innovation.- 4 Authority: Spurious Execution of Experiments, Analysis of Data, and Interpretation of Data, that Leads to Spurious Conclusions as Barriers to Invention, Discovery, and Innovation.- Part II Practices that Promote Invention, Discovery, and Innovation in Science and Technology.- 5 Practices that Promote Invention, Discovery, and Innovation in Science and Technology: Curiosity, Skepticism, Critical Thinking, Risk-taking, and Interdisciplinary Education.- 6 Why These Medical Devices Received Widespread Clinical Acceptance While Many Other Promising Devices Failed to do so?.- Part III The Human Eye: A Window to the World.- 7 Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Eye.- 8 The Human Visual System (Eye and Brain).- 9 Optical Properties of the Human Eye.- Part IV Eye-to-Eye: Observing the Human Eye, Visual Optical Instruments.- 11 Goldmann’s Slit Lamp Microscopy, Focal Illumination, and Optical Sectioning.- 12 Scheimpflug and His Camera.- 13 Maurice and His Specular Microscope.- Part V Detector-to-Eye: New Technology for Imaging the Human Eye.- 14 The Confocal Microscope.- 15 The Fundus Camera, Fluorescein and Indocyanine Green Angiography.- 16 The Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO).- 17 Optical Aberrations and Adaptive Optics (AO).- 18 Optical Low-Coherence Tomography (OCT).- 19 The Importance of Responsible Conduct of Research.- Index.