OCT technology development: Where are we now? A commercial perspective

The field of optical coherence tomography (OCT) has grow enormously since its inception in 1991 at MIT, encompassing many areas of imaging research. Improvements in the optical technology used in OCT systems, and in the design of the OCT interferometers and probes, has resulted in steadily improving image quality and more practical probe designs. Successful commercial application of OCT occurred first in retina imaging, and many further applications now appear ripe for translation further applications now appear ripe for translation from the laboratory to the marketplace. In this paper, I review this translation process from a commercial perspective, and attempt to draw helpful conclusions. [GRAPHICS] Multi-beam OCT microscope used to study a biopsy sample. (C) 2009 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim