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Updated: May 12, 2026
12:22
Multimodal Volumetric Retinal Imaging by Oblique Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy (oSLO) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
Published on: August 4, 2018
Vis-OCT Explorer: an open-source software for visible-light optical coherence tomography data processing
Weijia Fan1, Fengyuanshan Xu1, Roman Kuranov1,2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Biomedical Optics Express
|May 11, 2026
Summary
We created Vis-OCT Explorer, open-source software for high-resolution visible-light OCT imaging. This tool ensures reliable quantitative measurements for retinal imaging, aiding clinical studies.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Biomedical Imaging
- Software Engineering
Background:
- Visible-light optical coherence tomography (vis-OCT) offers superior retinal imaging resolution.
- Clinical application of vis-OCT is hindered by the need for advanced post-processing techniques.
- High-quality, dependable vis-OCT imaging requires specialized reconstruction and analysis methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate Vis-OCT Explorer, an open-source Python software package for vis-OCT image reconstruction and post-processing.
- To enhance the quality and reliability of vis-OCT images through advanced processing techniques.
- To support standardization and multicenter clinical studies using vis-OCT data.
Main Methods:
- Developed Vis-OCT Explorer, a modular Python package incorporating standard OCT processing steps.
- Implemented dual-spectrometer balanced detection and STFT-based dispersion compensation optimization.
- Utilized GPU acceleration for enhanced processing speed and efficiency.
- Evaluated reconstruction performance using an intensity-based tissue contrast index and assessed measurement repeatability via ICC analysis.
Main Results:
- Balanced detection significantly improved vis-OCT image quality.
- Vis-OCT Explorer demonstrated good repeatability for retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thickness measurements (ICC > 0.8).
- High cross-user repeatability was confirmed for both macula- and optic nerve head-centered images.
Conclusions:
- Vis-OCT Explorer provides high-quality image reconstruction for reliable quantitative measurements in vis-OCT.
- The software facilitates dependable quantitative analysis, crucial for clinical ophthalmology.
- This validated tool supports future multicenter vis-OCT studies and data standardization efforts.
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