text:
Methods and systems for tracking a position and torsional orientation of a patient's eye. In one embodiment, the present invention provides methods and software for registering a first image of an eye with a second image of an eye. In another embodiment, the present invention provides methods and software for tracking a torsional movement of the eye. In a particular usage, the present invention tracks the torsional cyclorotation and translational movement of a patient's eye so as to improve the delivery of a laser energy to the patient's cornea.
1. A laser surgery system comprising:
a computer processor configured to receive a first image of an eye and at least one of a wavefront measurement and an ablation pattern for the eye;
an eye tracker coupled to the computer processor that tracks a position of the eye under an optical axis of a laser beam; and
a torsional tracker coupled to the computer processor that tracks a torsional orientation of the eye,
wherein the computer processor is configured to adjust a delivery of the ablation pattern based on a change of position and/or torsional orientation of the eye.
2. The system of
3. The system of
4. The system of
5. The system of
6. The system of
The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/300,714 filed on Nov. 19, 2002, which claims benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/384,653 filed on May 30, 2002, the complete disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates generally to laser eye surgery methods and systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to registering a first image of a patient's eye with a second image of a patients eye and to tracking a position and a torsional orientation of the patient's eye during laser eye surgery so as to register a customized ablation profile with the patient's eye.
Known laser eye procedures generally employ an ultraviolet or infrared laser to remove a microscopic layer of stromal tissue from the cornea of the eye to alter the refractive characteristics of the eye. The laser removes a selected shape of the corneal tissue, often to correct refractive errors of the eye. Ultraviolet laser ablation results in photo-decomposition of the corneal tissue, but generally does not cause significant thermal damage to adjacent and underlying tissues of the eye. The irradiated molecules are broken into smaller volatile fragments photochemically, directly breaking the intermolecular bonds.
Laser ablation procedures can remove the targeted stroma of the cornea to change the cornea's contour for varying purposes, such as for correcting myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and the like. Control over the distribution of ablation energy across the cornea may be provided by a variety of systems and methods, including the use of ablatable masks, fixed and moveable apertures, controlled scanning systems, eye movement tracking mechanisms, and the like. In known systems, the laser beam often comprises a series of discrete pulses of laser light energy, with the total shape and amount of tissue removed being determined by the shape, size, location, and/or number of a pattern of laser energy pulses impinging on the cornea. A variety of algorithms may be used to calculate the pattern of laser pulses used to reshape the cornea so as to correct a refractive error of the eye. Known systems make use of a variety of forms of lasers and/or laser energy to effect the correction, including infrared lasers, ultraviolet lasers, femtosecond lasers, wavelength multiplied solid-state lasers, and the like. Alternative vision correction techniques make use of radial incisions in the cornea, intraocular lenses, removable corneal support structures, thermal shaping, and the like.
Known corneal correction treatment methods have generally been successful in correcting standard vision errors, such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and the like. However, as with all successes, still further improvements would be desirable. Toward that end, wavefront measurement systems are now available to measure the refractive characteristics of a particular patient's eye. By customizing an ablation pattern based on wavefront measurements, it may be possible to correct minor refractive errors so as to reliably and repeatably provide visual accuities greater than 20/20. Alternatively, it may be desirable to correct aberrations of the eye that reduce visual acuity to less than 20/20. Unfortunately, these measurement systems are not immune from measurement error. Similarly, the calculation of the ablation profile, the transfer of information from the measurement system to the ablation system, and the operation of the ablation system all provide opportunities for the introduction of errors, so that the actual visual accuities provided by real-world wavefront-based correction systems may not be as good as might be theoretically possible.
One potential problem with the use of wavefront measurements is aligning the customized laser ablation pattern with the patient's eye. In order to achieve precise registration between the wavefront measurement and the treatment to be delivered to the patient's eye, the wavefront measurement and the eye should share a common coordinate system. For example, when the wavefront measurement is taken, the patient will generally be in a seated position. However, when the laser eye surgery is being performed, the patient will generally be in a supine position, which may not position the patient's eye in the same position or torsional orientation as the eye when the wavefront measurement was taken.
Moreover, even if the patient is positioned in the same initial position and/or torsional orientation, the eye often undergoes a cyclotorsional rotation. If this rotation is not properly accounted for, the benefits of the refractive surgery would be reduced, particularly in cases of astigmatism and other non-rotationally symmetric aberrations. It has been reported by numerous investigators and researchers that human eyes may undergo torsional movements, usually within 15 degrees from the resting position, but typically it is around 2 to 7 degrees around their axes, during normal activities. The amount of rotation depends on the individual, the stimulus being viewed, and it may depend on the motion and orientation of the person's head and body. Such torsional movement of the patient's eye during the ablation may cause a non-optimal delivery of the customized ablation pattern to the patient's eye, particularly in cases of astigmatism and other-non-rotationally symmetric aberrations.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to provide methods and devices which can accurately register the patient's eye with the customized ablation pattern. Additionally, it would be desirable to account for the positional movement and torsional rotation of the patient's eyes during a laser surgery procedure.
The present invention provides methods and systems which can improve laser eye surgery.
In one aspect, the methods and software of the present invention can register a first image of the patient's eye with a second image of the patient's eye. In some embodiments, the methods can determine a torsional offset θ0 between the eye in the first image and the eye in the second image.
In one embodiment, a method comprises selecting at least one marker on the iris of the eye in the first image. A corresponding marker is located on the iris in the second image. The first image of the eye and the second image of the eye are registered by substantially matching a common reference point in the first and second images and matching the marker on the iris of the image of the first eye and the marker on the iris of the image of the second eye. Thereafter, a laser treatment can be centered and torsionally aligned with the second image of the eye. In some embodiments, the second image of the eye can be obtained while the patient's eye is aligned with a laser beam that is to deliver the laser treatment.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the common reference point is a pupil center. In other embodiments, the common reference point can be determined through a function of a pupil center and an iris center.
In another embodiment, the first image of the eye is obtained during the measurement of a wavefront (which reflects the lower and higher order optical aberrations in the optical system of the patient's eye) and the second image of the eye is obtained when the patient is positioned in the optical axis of the therapeutic laser. In order to align a laser treatment that is derived from the measured wavefront, the patient's eye in the first image can be registered with the patient's eye when it is positioned in an optical axis of the therapeutic laser so that the laser treatment is delivered in a torsionally correct orientation.
In another aspect, the present invention can track the torsional movement of the eye over time θ(t). Tracking of the torsional orientation of the patient's eye allows a computer processor to adjust a delivery of the customized ablation treatment to account for the changes in the position and orientation of the patient's eye.
In one particular configuration, the present invention provides for torsional tracking of the eye. A tracking algorithm can establish the exact amount of rotation of the eye with respect to the wavefront image taken during the wavefront measurement. This torsional rotation of the eye can be compensated for by making corresponding adjustment of the laser beam delivery.
In one embodiment of a method of the present invention, a reference point (such as a pupil center) is located in a first image of the eye. At least one marker is identified in the first image of the eye. The reference point is also located in a second image of the eye. A corresponding marker is identified in the second image of the eye. A cyclotorsional rotation of the eye is estimated between the first image and second image by comparing the orientation of the at least one markers relative to the pupil center in the first image and the second image.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of performing laser eye surgery. The method comprises measuring a wavefront measurement of the patient's eye. An image of the patient's eye is obtained during the measuring of the wavefront measurement. A laser treatment of the patient's eye is generated based on the wavefront measurement. The position of the patient's eye is registered with the image of the patient's eye obtained during the measuring of the wavefront measurement so that the customized laser treatment can accurately delivered to the patient's eye. The laser treatment is delivered to the patient's eye while the torsional orientation of the patient's eye is monitored. The delivery of the laser treatment is adjusted based on the monitored torsional orientation of the patient's eye.
In another aspect, the present invention provide a laser surgery system. In one embodiment, the laser surgery system provides a computer processor configured to receive a first image of an eye and at least one of a wavefront measurement and an ablation pattern for the eye. An eye tracker can be coupled to the computer processor to track a position of the eye under an optical axis of a laser beam. A torsional tracker is coupled to the computer processor to track a torsional orientation of the eye. The computer processor can be configured to adjust a delivery of the ablation pattern based on a change of position and/or torsional orientation of the eye.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a laser surgery system comprising a system for registering a first image of an eye with a second image of an eye. The system includes a computer processor that is configured to receive a first image of an eye. An imaging device can be coupled to the computer processor. The imaging device can obtain a second image of the eye. The computer processor can be configured to locate a reference point, such as a pupil center, in the first and second image of the eye and locate at least one marker in the first image and find a corresponding marker in the second image. The computer processor can register the first and second image by substantially matching the reference points (e.g., pupil centers) and markers of the first and second image.
For a further understanding of the nature and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The present invention is particularly useful for enhancing the accuracy and efficacy of laser eye surgical procedures such as photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK), laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK), and the like. The efficacy of the laser eye surgical procedures can be enhanced by tracking the torsional orientation of the patient's eye so that a laser ablation pattern is more accurately aligned with the real-time orientation of the patient's eye.
While the system and methods of the present invention are described primarily in the context of improving a laser eye surgery system, it should be understood the techniques of the present invention may be adapted for use in alternative eye treatment procedures and systems such as femtosecond lasers and laser treatment, infrared lasers and laser treatments, radial keratotomy (RK), scleral bands, follow up diagnostic procedures, and the like.
Referring now to
Laser 12 generally comprises an excimer laser, typically comprising an argon-fluorine laser producing pulses of laser light having a wavelength of approximately 193 nm. Laser 12 will preferably be designed to provide a feedback stabilized fluence at the patient's eye, delivered via delivery optics 16. The present invention may also be useful with alternative sources of ultraviolet or infrared radiation, particularly those adapted to controllably ablate the corneal tissue without causing significant damage to adjacent and/or underlying tissues of the eye. Such sources include, but are not limited to, solid state lasers and other devices which can generate energy in the ultraviolet wavelength between about 185 and 205 nm and/or those which utilize frequency-multiplying techniques. Hence, although an excimer laser is the illustrative source of an ablating beam, other lasers may be used in the present invention.
Laser 12 and delivery optics 16 will generally direct laser beam 14 to the eye of patient P under the direction of a computer processor 22. Processor 22 will generally selectively adjust laser beam 14 to expose portions of the cornea to the pulses of laser energy so as to effect a predetermined sculpting of the cornea and alter the refractive characteristics of the eye. In many embodiments, both laser 14 and the laser delivery optical system 16 will be under computer control of processor 22 to effect the desired laser sculpting process so as to deliver the customized ablation profile, with the processor ideally altering the ablation procedure in response to inputs from the optical feedback system. The feedback will preferably be input into processor 22 from an automated image analysis system, or may be manually input into the processor by a system operator using an input device in response to a visual inspection of analysis images provided by the optical feedback system. Processor 22 will often continue and/or terminate a sculpting treatment in response to the feedback, and may optionally also modify the planned sculpting based at least in part on the feedback.
Laser beam 14 may be adjusted to produce the desired sculpting using a variety of alternative mechanisms. The laser beam 14 may be selectively limited using one or more variable apertures. An exemplary variable aperture system having a variable iris and a variable width slit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,892, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The laser beam may also be tailored by varying the size and offset of the laser spot from an axis of the eye, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,379, and as also described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/968,380, filed Nov. 12, 1997; and 09/274,999 filed Mar. 22, 1999, the full disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Still further alternatives are possible, including scanning of the laser beam over the surface of the eye and controlling the number of pulses and/or dwell time at each location, as described, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,913 (the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference) and as demonstrated by other scanning laser systems such as the LSX laser by LaserSight, LadarVision by Alcon/Autonomous, and the 217C by Technolas; using masks in the optical path of laser beam 14 which ablate to vary the profile of the beam incident on the cornea, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/468,898, filed Jun. 6, 1995 (the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference); hybrid profile-scanning systems in which a variable size beam (typically controlled by a variable width slit and/or variable diameter iris diaphragm) is scanned across the cornea; or the like. The computer programs and control methodology for these laser pattern tailoring techniques are well described in the patent literature.
Additional components and subsystems may be included with laser system 15, as should be understood by those of skill in the art. For example, spatial and/or temporal integrators may be included to control the distribution of energy within the laser beam, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,791, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. An ablation effluent evacuator/filter, and other ancillary components of the laser surgery system which are not necessary to an understanding of the invention, need not be described in detail for an understanding of the present invention.
As mentioned above, laser system 15 will generally include a computer system or programmable processor 22. Processor 22 may comprise (or interface with) a conventional PC system including the standard user interface devices such as a keyboard, a display monitor, and the like. Processor 22 will typically include an input device such as a magnetic or optical disk drive, a CD drive, an internet connection, or the like. Such input devices will often be used to download a computer executable code from a computer network or a tangible storage media 29 embodying steps or programming instructions for any of the methods of the present invention. Tangible storage media 29 includes, but is not limited to a CD-R, a CD-RW, DVD, a floppy disk, an optical disk, a data tape, a non-volatile memory, or the like, and the processor 22 will include the memory boards and other standard components of modem computer systems for storing and executing this code.
Wavefront measurement device 10 typically includes a wavefront measurement assembly 11 and an imaging assembly 13. Wavefront measurement assembly 11 can be used to measure and obtain a wavefront elevation surface of at least one of the patient's eyes and imaging assembly 13 can obtain still or moving images of the patient's eye during the wavefront measurement.
In exemplary embodiments, imaging assembly 13 is a CCD camera that can obtain a still image of the patient's eye. The image(s) obtained by imaging assembly 13 can thereafter be used to register the wavefront measurement and/or a customized ablation pattern (based on the wavefront measurement) with the patient's eye during the laser surgical procedure.
The wavefront measurement assembly 11 and imaging assembly 13 can be coupled to or integral with a computer system 17 that can generate and store the wavefront measurements and images of the patient's eye. Thereafter, the patient's wavefront data can be stored on a computer readable medium, such as a CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, floppy disk, optical disk, a hard drive, or other computer readable medium. Optionally, in some embodiments, the computer system of the wavefront measurement device can generate and save an ablation profile based on the wavefront data.
The wavefront data and/or the customized ablation profile can be loaded into a laser surgical system 15 through reading of the computer readable medium or through delivery into a memory of surgical system 15 over a local or wide-area network (LAN or WAN). Laser eye surgery system 15 can include a computer controller system 22 that is in communication with an imaging assembly 20 and a laser assembly 12. Computer system 22 can have software stored in a memory and hardware that can be used to control the delivery of the ablative energy to the patient's eye, the tracking of the position (translations in the x, y, and z directions and torsional rotations) of the patient's eye relative to an optical axis of laser beam 14, and the like. In exemplary embodiments, among other functions, computer system 22 can be programmed to calculate a customized ablation profile based on the wavefront data, register the image(s) taken with imaging assembly 11 with the image(s) taken by imaging assembly 20, and measure the torsional offset, θ0, between the patient's eye in the two images. Additionally, computer system 22 can be programmed to measure, in real-time, the movement (x(t), y(t), z(t), and rotational orientation θ(t)) of the patient's eye relative to the optical axis of the laser beam so as to allow the computer system to modify the delivery of the customized ablation profile based on the real-time position of the patient's eye.
Referring now to
In very general terms, wavefront measurement device 10 includes an imaging assembly 13 that can image the patient's eye E during the wavefront measurement. Wavefront measurement assembly 13 includes an image source 32 which projects a source image through optical tissues 34 of eye E and so as to form an image 44 upon a surface of retina R. The image from retina R is transmitted by the optical system of the eye (specifically, optical tissues 34) and imaged onto a wavefront sensor 36 by system optics 38. The imaging assembly 11 can be in communication with a computer system 22 to deliver the image(s) of the patient's eye to a memory in the computer. Wavefront sensor 36 can also communicate signals to computer 17 for determination of a corneal ablation treatment program. Computer 17 may be the same computer which is used to direct operation of the laser surgery system 15, or at least some or all of the computer components of the wavefront measurement device 10 and laser surgery system may be separate. Data from wavefront sensor 36 may be transmitted to laser system computer 22 via tangible media 29, via an I/O port, via an networking connection such as an intranet, the Internet, or the like.
Wavefront sensor 36 generally comprises a lenslet array 38 and an image sensor 40. As the image from retina R is transmitted through optical tissues 34 and imaged onto a surface of lenslet array 38, the lenslet array separates the transmitted image into an array of beamlets 42, and (in combination with other optical components of the system) images the separated beamlets on the surface of sensor 40. Sensor 40 typically comprises a charged couple device or CCD, and senses the characteristics of these individual beamlets, which can be used to determine the characteristics of an associated region of optical tissues 34. In particular, where image 44 comprises a point or small spot of light, a location of the transmitted spot as imaged by a beamlet can directly indicate a local gradient of the associated region of optical tissue.
Eye E generally defines an anterior orientation ANT and a posterior orientation POS. Image source 32 generally projects an image in a posterior orientation through optical tissues 34 onto retina R. Optical tissues 34 again transmit image 44 from the retina anteriorly toward wavefront sensor 36. Image 44 actually formed on retina R may be distorted by any imperfections in the eye's optical system when the image source is originally transmitted by optical tissues 34. Optionally, image source projection optics 46 may be configured or adapted to decrease any distortion of image 44.
In some embodiments, image source optics may decrease lower order optical errors by compensating for spherical and/or cylindrical errors of optical tissues 34. Higher order optical errors of the optical tissues may also be compensated through the use of an adaptive optic element, such as a deformable mirror. Use of an image source 32 selected to define a point or small spot at image 44 upon retina R may facilitate the analysis of the data provided by wavefront sensor 36. Distortion of image 44 may be limited by transmitting a source image through a central region 48 of optical tissues 34 which is smaller than a pupil 50, as the central portion of the pupil may be less prone to optical errors than the peripheral portion. Regardless of the particular image source structure, it will be generally be beneficial to have well-defined and accurately formed image 44 on retina R.
While the method of the present invention will generally be described with reference to sensing of an image 44 on the retina, it should be understood that a series of wavefront sensor data readings may be taken. For example, a time series of wavefront data readings may help to provide a more accurate overall determination of the ocular tissue aberrations. As the ocular tissues can vary in shape over a brief period of time, a plurality of temporally separated wavefront sensor measurements can avoid relying on a single snapshot of the optical characteristics as the basis for a refractive correcting procedure. Still further alternatives are also available, including taking wavefront sensor data of the eye with the eye in differing configurations, positions, and/or orientations. For example, a patient will often help maintain alignment of the eye with wavefront device 13 by focusing on a fixation target, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,313, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. By varying a focal position of the fixation target as described in that reference, optical characteristics of the eye may be determined while the eye accommodate or adapts to image a field of view at a varying distance. Further alternatives include rotating of the eye by providing alternative and/or moving fixation targets within wavefront device 11.
The location of the optical axis of the eye may be verified by reference to the data provided from an imaging assembly or pupil camera 13 that images the eye concurrently during the wavefront measurements. In the exemplary embodiment, a pupil camera 13 images pupil 50 and/or the iris so as to allow subsequent determination of a position and torsional orientation of the pupil and/or iris for registration of the wavefront sensor data relative to the optical tissues, as will also be described hereinbelow.
An alternative embodiment of a wavefront sensor system is illustrated in
The components of one embodiment of a wavefront system for measuring the eye and ablations comprise elements of a VISX WaveScan™, available from VISX, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. A preferred embodiment includes a WaveScan with a deformable mirror as described above. An alternate embodiment of a wavefront measuring device is described in U. S. Patent No. 6,271,915, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
A treatment program map may be calculated from the wavefront elevation map so as to remove the regular (spherical and/or cylindrical) and irregular errors of the optical tissues. By combining the treatment program with a laser ablation pulse characteristics of a particular laser system, a table of ablation pulse locations, sizes, shapes, and/or numbers can be developed. An exemplary method and system for preparing such an ablation table is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/805,737 filed on Mar. 13, 2001 and entitled "Generating Scanning Spot Locations for Laser Eye Surgery," the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Ablation table may optionally be optimized by sorting of the individual pulses so as to avoid localized heating, minimize irregular ablations if the treatment program is interrupted, and the like.
Based on the wavefront measurements of the eye, a corneal ablation pattern may be calculated by processor 17 or 22 (or by another separate processor) for ablating the eye with laser ablation system 15 so as to correct the optical errors of the eye. Such calculations will often be based on both the measured optical properties of the eye and on the characteristics of the corneal tissue targeted for ablation (such as the ablation rate, the refractive index, the propensity of the tissue to form "central islands" or decreased central ablation depths within a uniform energy beam, and the like). The results of the calculation will often comprise an ablation pattern in the form of an ablation table listing ablation locations, numbers of pulses, ablation sizes, and or ablation shapes to effect the desired refractive correction. An exemplary method for generating ablation patterns is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/805,737, the full disclosure of which was previously incorporated herein by reference. Where the refractive error is to be corrected by alternative treatment modalities, alternative treatment plans may be prepared, such as corneal ring implant sizes, or the like.
Referring now to
During the calculation of the wavefront elevation surface, imaging assembly 11 can concurrently obtain an image 56 of the patient's eye, e.g., pupil and iris. The image of the patient's eye 56 can be analyzed by an algorithm 62 that locates the center of the pupil and/or iris, calculates the radius of the pupil and/or iris, and locates markers 64 in the patient's iris for subsequent registration and tracking.
In order to register the ablation profile 60 and the patient's eye during the laser treatment, the ablation pattern and the patient's eye should share a common coordinate system. Thus, ablation profile 60 should be positionally and torsionally aligned with the patient's eye when the patient's eye is positioned in the path of the laser beam. Additionally, the translational and torsional orientation of the patient's eye should be tracked during the surgical procedure to ensure an accurate delivery of the ablation profile.
To torsionally align (i.e., register) the ablation profile 60 with the patient's eye E, the reference or iris image 56 of the eye needs to have a unique coordinate transformation to an image of the eye taken by the pupil camera 20 of the laser system so as to determine the positional differences and torsional offset between the two images of the eye, θ0. In exemplary embodiments, pupil camera 20 is a video device that can obtain streaming video of the patient's eye. One frame 66 of the streaming video, typically the first frame of the streaming video, can be analyzed by the computer processor to locate the pupil center, iris center, and/or markers 64 that were originally located in the reference image 56. Once the pupil center, iris center, and/or markers 64 are located, a torsionally offset, θ0, between reference image 56 and video frame image 66 of the patient's eye is calculated.
Once the torsional offset θ0 is determined, the computer can track the translational position (x(t), y(t), and z(t)) of the patient's eye E with a high speed eye tracker (HSET) 68 and the torsional orientation θ(t)) of the eye with a torsional tracker 70. Because the position of the center of the pupil is tracked with the HSET 68, the torsional tracker 70 generally has to estimate the position of the markers 64 with respect to the pupil center.
If the HSET 68 determines that the patient's eye has moved (relative to video frame image 66), the computer can correct the delivery of the customized ablation pattern by adjusting the patient's customized treatment table 60 by adding in the translation and torsional measurements into the table. The treatment table can be adjusted such that at time t, if the overall rotation angle of the eye is θ(t), and the next pulse of the laser is supposed to be delivered at location (x,y) on the cornea, the new location of the delivery of the pulse can be defined by:
To track the torsional movement of the patient's eye, torsional tracker 70 can use the markers 64 identified above, other high-contrast iris patches, or if the patient's iris contains too little texture, the surgeon will have an option of drawing artificial landmarks 72 on the eye for tracking. Optionally, in some embodiments it is possible for the algorithm to decide if artificial markers are required.
The translational position and torsional orientation of the patient's eye can be tracked and analyzed by a computer processor in real-time so that the x(t), y(t), z(t) and θ(t) information 74 can be used to adjust the customized treatment table 60 so that laser 12 delivers the appropriate ablation pattern 76 to the patient's eye.
Some exemplary methods of carrying out the present invention will now be described. As described above, a first step of the present invention entails registering a reference image of the eye taken during the calculation of the wavefront elevation map with a second image of the eye taken just prior to the delivery of the ablation energy.
FIGS. 5 to 9 illustrate aspects of one embodiment of a method of the present invention.
It should be appreciated however, that the present invention can use a variety of imaging devices to produce different images and can be illuminated under various types of illumination.
In most configurations, the smallest distance between the edge of the pupil and the obstructing elements, such as eyelids, eyelashes, strong shadows or highlights should be sufficiently large to leave a portion of the iris completely exposed for the entire 360-degree range. Preferably, the largest possible portion of the iris is in sharp focus so as to expose its texture.
A pupil finding algorithm can be used to locate the pupil, calculate the radius of the pupil and find the center of the pupil (Step 82). In one embodiment the pupil is located by thresholding the image by analyzing a pixel value histogram and choosing the position of a first "dip" in the histogram after at least 2000 pixels are below the cutoff threshold. All pixels below the threshold are labeled with "1" and pixels above the threshold are labeled with "0". Pixels labeled with "1" would generally correspond to the pupil, eyelashes, and possibly other regions of the image. It should be appreciated however, that the number of pixels employed will be related to the area of the pupil and will vary with applications of the invention.
The two distinguishing features about the pupil region, compared to other non-pupil regions is its large size and central location. In some embodiments, regions intersecting with a 5-pixel wide inner frame of the image can be discarded and the largest remaining region can be selected as the pupil.
If desired, the selected pupil region can be filled to remove any holes created by reflections, or the like. For example, in one embodiment, the remaining region of the image may also be analyzed for convexity. If the ratio of the area of the region to the area of its convex hull was less then 0.97, a circle completion procedure can be applied to the convex points on the region's boundary. One way of performing such an analysis is through a Matlab function "imfeature(. . . , 'CovexHull')". A radius and center of the pupil can be estimated by a standard weighted least-square estimation procedure. If the convexity quotient was above 0.97, the radius and centroid can obtained using conventional methods, such as Matlab's "imfeature(. . . , 'Centroid', 'EquivDiameter')" function.
Optionally, in some embodiments an iris finding algorithm can be used to locate the iris, calculate the radius of the iris, and/or locate the iris center. Since the images of the eye from both imaging assembly 11 and the camera 20 both contain the pupil and iris, in some embodiments it may be more accurate to register the images by calculating the center of the pupil and the center of the iris and expressing the position of the pupil center with respect to the center of the iris. The center of the iris may be described as a center of a circle corresponding to the outer boundary of the iris. The position of the center of the iris can be used to calculate a pupil offset from the iris center.
If {right arrow over (XP WS)} are the coordinates of the center of the pupil in image 56 (
Since the boundary of the iris may be soft in terms of contrast and may also degraded by shadows and light reflections, there may be difficulties associated with detecting the outer iris boundary in infrared images of the eye. One method for detection of both iris and the pupil in the image I(x,y) is to minimize the following integral over all possible values of iris radius and center:
One alternative to the above method takes advantage of the fact that the pupil center has already been found (as described above), that the iris has a limited range of possible values and the iris center is usually not very far from the pupil center. As shown in
For example, as illustrated in
The iris finding algorithm shows tolerance to other edges detected by the derivative operator, but corresponding to other structures in the image (e.g., LASIK flap). If desired, to reduce the computation time, the original images can be smoothed with a Gaussian kernel and sub-sampled by a factor of four prior to a derivative computation.
In embodiments of the present invention, the boundary of the iris can be localized with sub-pixel accuracy, but it might be slightly displaced from its true location if the shadows in the image soften the boundary edge. However, the errors are fairly well balanced in all directions from the center, so that the final result is very close to the actual center.
In the embodiments tested, the image scale for both the second image (e.g., laser image) and the first image (e.g., wavefront image) is estimated to be 52.3 pixels per millimeter, which is 19.1 μm per pixel. An error of one pixel in the boundary estimation on one side of the iris would result in about 10 μm error in the estimate of the iris center. Given the current precision of conventional eye trackers (about 50 μm ) and the range of pupil center shift (up to 1000 μm), the errors of a few pixels in the iris boundary would still be within the acceptable accuracy for the ablation centering.
Next, after the pupil center (and/or iris center) are located, a width of the iris ring can be extracted from the images. (Step 84). The iris can be treated as an elastic sheet stretched between pupil and the outer rim of the iris. In embodiments that do not use the iris finding algorithm, the width of the iris band can be set to 76 pixels for images of dark-colored eyes, and 104 pixels for the light-colored eyes. It should be appreciated, however, that other width estimations can be used. The radius of the iris in the reference images of
As shown in
In some embodiments, the iris ring can be sampled at one-pixel steps in the radial direction for the reference image. Optionally, to reduce aliasing, the images can be smoothed with σ=1 pixel Gaussian kernel.
Optionally, the dynamic range of pixel values in the iris may be adjusted to remove outliers due to reflections from the illumination LED lights. The pixel value histogram can be thresholded so that all the pixels with values above the threshold are assigned the value of the threshold. Also, some band-pass filtering may be applied to the iris bands prior to region selection to remove lighting variation artifacts.
After the iris is divided into sectors, one salient region or marker in each sector in image can be located and its properties can be extracted. (Steps 88, 90). In one embodiment, the iris region is segmented into twenty four sectors of fifteen degrees. It should be appreciated, however, that in other embodiments, the iris region can be segmented into more than twenty four sectors or less than twenty four sectors.
The markers in the reference image can be stored and later located in the second image of the eye so as to estimate the torsional displacement of the eye between the two images. One embodiment of a method of locating the markers is described more fully in Groen, E., "Chapter 1 on Video-oculography," PhD Thesis, University of Utrecht (1997), the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The markers should be sufficiently distinct and have high contrast. There are several possible ways to select such points. In one implementation, a square mask of size M�M (for example, 21�21 for dark-colored eyes and 31�3 l for light-colored eyes) is defined. The mask can be scanned over each of the twenty four sectors, and for each pixel in each sector a value is computed from the region inside the mask centered at that pixel. The value assigned to the pixel is determined as the sum of amplitudes of all spatial frequencies present in the region. In one embodiment, the sum of the amplitudes can be computed by a Fourier transform of the region. If desired, the central 5�5 portion of the Fourier spectrum can be nulled to remove a DC component. The maximum value can then be located in each sector, such that the boundary of its corresponding mask is at least 5 pixels away from the iris image boundary in order to avoid getting close to the pupil margin and other boundary artifacts, such as the eyelid and eyelashes. The "winning" positions and the corresponding blocks are stored for later comparison.
It should be appreciated, however, that there are alternative methods for evaluation of block/marker texture strength. For example the following matrix can be applied. If Gx is the derivative of the block intensity in the x-direction, and Gy is the derivative of the block intensity in the y-direction, then:
And let λ1, λ2 be the eigenvalues of the matrix of Z, with =80 2 being the smaller one, then λ2 is the texture strength of the block.
The second image of the eye can also be obtained. (Step 92;
The sectors in the second image are located and the salient regions that correspond to the salient regions in the reference image are located. (Step 94;
The match between the marker in the reference image and the marker in the second image is evaluated as the sum of absolute errors (after both blocks are made to have zero mean value) for each corresponding region centered at a given pixel. As shown in
Alternatively, instead of using the sum of absolute errors to match the markers, a dot product of the mean-subtracted reference and the second image patches can be calculated, where:
Once the corresponding salient regions/markers are located in the second image, an angular displacement for each marker is calculated to estimate a total torsional angle of the eye between the first, reference image and the second image. (Step 96;
Under ideal circumstances, the displacement of each marker would be identical and equal to the torsional angle. However, there are several distortions that make the problem of estimating the true torsional angle more complex. First, the center of the pupil may not be estimated correctly. This introduces a sinusoidal distribution of displacement angles around the true torsional angle. The amplitude of the sinusoid is usually quite small. Second, the actual shape of the pupil is often elliptical and not round. This can introduce a sinusoidal distortion with twice the period of the center of the pupil distortion due to the method of measurement of the landmarks with respect to the circular pupil. Indeed, points further away from the pupil center will be spaced closer to each other after the iris is unwrapped, and points closer to the pupil center would end up being spaced more widely. Finally, some corresponding markers may make false matches; such markers can be treated as outliers. Consequently, to account for such distortions, in one embodiment the estimated angles can be fitted with a number of different functions using an iterative weighted estimation as follows:
The initial torsional angle, θ0, computed by the alignment algorithm (between the iris image 56 taken with pupil camera 13 and the initial video frame 66 from imaging device 20) can be added to every subsequent frame for tracking of the torsional orientation of the patient's eye. The total torsional orientation θtotal (t) of the patient's eye in the laser image can be described as follows:
While the alignment algorithm that calculates θ0 does not have to produce results in real time, a tracking algorithm that tracks the torsional rotation θ(t) of the eye should work at frame rate, which demands quick, efficient and accurate computations. In one embodiment, the high speed eye tracker (HSET) of the laser surgical system can be used to keep track of the translation of the pupil the x, y, and z directions. Having the position of the pupil readily available requires only that the torsional tracker estimate the positions of the iris landmarks with respect to the center of the pupil.
The iris can undergo rigid translations (e.g., movement in the x, y, and z directions), rotations, as well as some non-rigid affine transformations of scaling and shearing. While the torsional angle is not affected by the non-rigid transformations, it is preferable that the non-rigid transformations be taken into account in order to ensure accurate feature matching from frame to frame. In one method, the main ideas is that given image I0, a feature portion of a frame at time t=0, and image In, part of frame at time t=n, one can determine the optimal set of parameters A and d, such that:
Since the types of transformation that occur during laser eye surgery are primarily translation (x, y, z) and torsional rotation about the optical axis of the eye, these parameters can be estimated and the remaining scale and shear parameters are refined afterwards. Such a procedure has been found to be robust in recovering the actual motion and avoids excessive deformations that might mimic the observed data.
The process of selecting points for tracking can be automatic or surgeon-assisted. The automatic process can select one point on the right of the pupil and one on the left based on which reference block in the corresponding neighborhood has best block-match score and also included in the estimate of the alignment angle, i.e. not an outlier. If the texture of the iris has very low contrast or does not have distinctive components, it may be necessary to introduce artificial landmarks. Such landmarks can be drawn on the eye by the surgeon, so that the algorithm would track their spatial displacements instead of displacements of the patches of iris texture.
One exemplary selection algorithm selects a subset of blocks that are not outliers. From this subset, blocks are removed that are in the positional domain of possible reflections. These positions are known due to specific placement of LEDs on the laser. The texture of the remaining blocks from the laser image may be quantified by the second largest eigenvector λ2. Two blocks, roughly on the opposite sides of the pupil are chosen, such that they have the largest λ2 in the group. In one embodiment, the "left block" is selected from the valid blocks centered around the 8-o'clock position, and the "right block" is selected among the valid blocks centered at the 2-o'clock position. The coordinates of the centers of these blocks can be used to initialize tracking.
Once the blocks/loci 112, 114 have been selected in the first frame, for each consecutive frame of the video feed, the blocks are located within a region of the iris that has the same position with respect to the pupil of the eye. The region is generally limited to approximately 15 degrees, since the eye will generally not rotate more than such a range, and within such a time between each consecutive frame of the video stream, the torsional rotation will likely be much less than the 15 degrees. As can be appreciated, in other embodiments, the range of analysis can be limited to a smaller or larger range, if desired.
The spatially corresponding regions of the first frame and the nth frame can be compared for affine displacement, giving preference to rigid transformations. In one embodiment, only horizontal and vertical displacements are reported by the tracking algorithm.
One exemplary method of calculating the torsional angle between the two selected block images in image frames of the video feed will now be described. If Bi is the coordinate of the ith block in the reference frame, X is the pupil center coordinate in the reference frame, and Xn is the pupil center coordinate in the nth frame, then the expected coordinates of the blocks in the nth frame are:
The expected pupil center coordinates of the blocks in both frames are:
If Di is the translation vector that aligns the ith block contents between the two frames, the correct block locations in the new frame are:
The angular position of each block in the pupil centered reference frame is described by θi=tan−1(By/Bx) and the total torsional angle between the nth and the reference frame is:
It should be noted that in
As noted above, one part of the described embodiment of the tracking algorithm is to estimate the motion parameters of a given block or marker. If I is the block in the original frame and J is the spatially corresponding block in a subsequent frame, let x be the pixel coordinates in these blocks. To estimate an affine transformation matrix A and translation vector D, the following equation can be minimized:
Matrix A can be decomposed into a rotation component and a scale/shear component as follows:
By estimating the rotation component of the matrix A and the translational vector D, the number of parameters can be reduced from 6 to 3. This approach clarifies between several possible solutions towards the one that has only rigid motion. While scaling and shear may occur as a result of pupil size change, their contribution to motion should be very small.
A linear system for computing rigid motion parameters is:
Experimental results for the alignment algorithm which registers the reference image of the patient's eyes with the second image of the patient's eye was obtained using Matlab software. The accuracy of the fit was determined by several factors: (1) the number of point used in the fit (at least half (12) of the reference points had to be used), and (2) the RMS error of the fit (1 degree was the highest RMS error allowed); and (3) a visual inspection of the matching reference points and the measurements taken with protractor were used to confirm the estimate. The original set of experiments was conducted with the laser camera magnification factor of 0.885. All the images of dark-colored eyes gave accurate predictions of the torsion angle by at least one of the methods. However, the light-colored eye did not have sufficient texture at that magnification to have a reliable torsion angle estimate.
In a second hardware configuration, the magnification factor of the laser's camera was adjusted to match that of the imaging device of the wavefront measurement device, thus eliminating scaling issues. Also, as the resolution of the laser camera increased due to larger magnification factor, more details became visible on the light-colored irises. Sixteen eyes (from six people) were photographed with the a CCD of the VISX WaveScan™ camera, while subjects were in the sitting position and with the laser's camera, while subjects were laying down in the surgical chair. The torsional angle was estimated between the two photographs of the same eye of the same subject.
The estimates in
The line fit criteria is not explicitly evaluated, since it can be thought of as a sinusoidal fit of zero-amplitude. This is simply a result of having 3 parameters in the sinusoidal fit (mean, amplitude and phase) versus one parameter for the line (mean). Therefore, any line fit quality would be worse then the sinusoidal estimates, even if it captures the nature of the data. As mentioned earlier, the line fit estimate of the torsion angle is usually close to the value reported by sinusoidal or possibly a double sinusoidal fit.
While not required, it is desirable that while capturing the reference image with imaging device 13, the following points should be considered. First, a majority of the iris should be visible so that a minimum width of the iris ring is more then 80 pixels. Second, the focus of the camera should be adjusted so that most of the iris is in focus providing the highest possible texture resolution of the iris ring. Several images can be taken to ensure good quality. Third, images with strong shadows and reflections on the iris should be rejected in order to avoid strong false markers. Finally, images should be saved into a file of type BMP or TIF. Optionally, image names should contain unique name of the subject, left or right indicator for the eye and the ID of the device from which they come (e.g., laser image or wavefront image).
While capturing the laser image the same reference points should be considered. As such, the illumination when obtaining the wavefront image should be the same when obtaining the image with the laser camera. Applicants have found that dark-colored eyes have more rich texture under the infrared illumination and light -colored eyes have more rich texture under visible light. The striated trabecular meshwork of elastic pectinate ligament (anterior layer) creates a predominant texture under visible light. For the near infrared light, deeper slower modulated stromal features dominate the iris pattern. See for example Daugman, J. "High confidence visual recognition of persons by a test of statistical independence," IEEE Transactions of Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 15(11), pp 1148-1161 (1993).
Image quality may also be degraded by LED reflections. However, because illumination is required, it may be unavoidable to have several LED reflections on the iris. These features can be handled by the algorithm as described above. These reflections, however, can greatly degrade the image quality. As shown in
In order to make the alignment system work under real surgical conditions, the system should be robust to noise and distortions introduced by cutting and lifting of the LASIK flap, dried surface of the cornea and other factors. In order to achieve this robustness, three additional steps can be added to the alignment algorithm. A first step was to mark the expected position of the LASIK flap as an invalid region, preventing the algorithm from selecting reference blocks in that area of the iris. A second step is to apply band-pass filtering to the unwrapped iris images. The convolution kernel was set to be the difference of 2-D Gaussian distributions with standard deviations equal to 3 and 12 pixels. A third step was the introduction of bi-directional alignment, when the blocks were selected and matched from the wavefront device to the laser and from the laser to the wavefront device. This essentially doubled the number of data points used for sinusoidal fitting.
Another difference in the matching was implemented as a special case for LASIK procedures. Instead of using LSE metric for block matching, a normalized correlation was used as a match criteria. This method was found to be more appropriate given different contrast levels of the wavefront image and the laser image of the eye with its flap lifted.
Experimental Torsional Tracking Results
To test the torsional tracking algorithm, the algorithm was run through several tests. The first set of results using the methods and software of the present invention to track the torsional movement of the patient's eye involved artificial rotation of an image of a video frame from the laser surgical system's camera 20. The image was rotated by 1 degree counter-clockwise for each subsequent frame. A total of 15 rotated frames were analyzed by the torsional tracking algorithm. The original frame and final frame are illustrated in
The second set of results comes from a 500-frame sequence capturing 25 seconds of real video of an eye. Several variables were tracked during the video processing: pupil center position, pupil radius, torsional angle, and error estimates for the two blocks tracked for each frame. The sequence was also visually inspected to verify the black match and the overall eye torsion. The zeroth frame (
The algorithm was tested to see the effect of the delay between the block selection and tracking initialization. This was accomplished by skipping the first 344 frames of the video sequence.
A third set of data was obtained by reducing the frame rate by a factor of two.
In order to test the accuracy of the torsional alignment (e.g., registration of the reference image with the first image of the video stream) and torsional tracking together, as well as the algorithm's ability to automatically select the blocks of texture in the reference image to track, the following test was performed. A video sequence of several hundred frames was captured under the laser with the torsional camera. Several seconds prior to the video sequence acquisition, a snapshot of the eye was taken through the laser camera. The iris image obtained from the wavefront measurement camera was aligned and registered with the snapshot image and the first frame of the video sequence. The alignment results using the "sine-method" between the wavefront measurement position of the iris and the first image of the video sequence was 0.04 degrees counterclockwise. (
The torsional tracking algorithm was engaged using the two images (snapshot and wavefront image) as a reference. The measurement of the torsional eye movements with respect to the reference image is depicted in
Therefore, for the above example, θfirst video image−0. 04=θsnapshot+0.80, where the alignment angle has a sign notation of clockwise being positive. The difference between the two estimates is shown in
From the data, it can be estimated that the mean of the difference, μ=0.4 degrees, and the standard deviation, σ=0.12 degrees. All of the error values for every video frame are less than one degree in magnitude. The mean shows the difference in the total alignment angle and its value is less than 1 degree, which is the specified tolerance for this one exemplary embodiment. It should be appreciated however, that other embodiments may have a tolerance that is more than 1 degree or less than 1 degree.
The standard deviation shows that tracking different texture patches from different images has very small effect on the total torsional angle estimates.
It should be appreciated by a person of ordinary skill in the art that the above alignment and tracking algorithms are merely examples of some algorithms that can be used to align the images of the eyes and track the torsional rotation of the patient's eye, and other algorithms, using different methodologies can be used without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
While all the above is a complete description of the preferred embodiments of the inventions, various alternatives, modifications, and equivalents may be used. For example, while the above description has been described in the context of laser eye surgery, the above concepts may be useful in tracking the position and orientation of an eye for use in identification systems. Although the foregoing invention has been described in detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be obvious that certain modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.
Referenced by
Legal Events
Original Image


text:
- It attaches to the bathtub wall with included adhesive strips, but can also be attached with suction cups or screws (not included).
- Frog's toes can be used to hang bath brushes and sponges on strings.
- The hard green plastic will not grow mold or mildew.
- Frog Pod supports about 10 pounds.
- Measures 19" H x 16 1/2" W x 7" D.
- NOTE: the Frog Pod is not intended to be used as a toy.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Outlook The definition of a tough-as-nails player, McClendon played through a herniated disk in his back and a pulled hamstring in 2008, still hitting .346 with 33 RBI ... Arguably the top returning third baseman in the league ... Given the nickname "Sparky" because of his ability to provide a spark in the game ... At times due to injury, struggled to bend over to pick up a ground ball during practices, but still managed to play through the pain when his team needed him most, laying out repeatedly throughout the season to save extra-base hits at third base.
2008 Game-by-Game
2009 Game-by-Game
Career Totals
2008 One of the top third basemen in the SEC, McClendon played in 48 games with 47 starts, while nursing lingering injuries during the season ... Batted .346 (62-for-179) with 11 doubles, a triple, three homers and 33 RBI ... A tremendous offensive and defensive threat, McClendon pulled a hamstring on Feb. 29, vs. Oakland, forcing him to miss the next four games ... Returned for the Purdue series playing third and DH ... Herniated a disk in his back late in the season and missed seven games in mid April ... Returned to the field while playing in pain, getting the maximum amount of cortisone injections ... Named to the SEC All-Tournament team after batting 5-for-13 with five RBI in UK's three games ...Totaled 18 multi-hit games, 11 multi-RBI games and ran up a 13 game hit streak ... Reached base safely in 41 of his 48 games ... In the second game at Tennessee, batted 2-for-4 with two RBI and a home run ... Went 4-for-5 with four runs, three RBI three doubles and a walk in a win over Tennessee ... In a first round win over Alabama in front of nearly 12,000 fans in Hoover, Ala., batted 2-for-5 with two RBI ... Followed that up with a 1-for-5, one run day vs. Ole Miss and a 2-for-5, two RBI night in the elimination game vs. Alabama ... Stole 7-of-10 bases on the year, despite battling injury ... Had two steals in a game vs. Fairfield, stealing another base in the second game of that doubleheader, against South Alabama.
Junior College Transfer from Texarkana College where he played for two seasons under Coach James Mansinger ... Sophomore year of 2007, was awarded a Rawlings Big Stick Award after hitting at a .483 clip with 92 hits, 35 doubles, two home runs, 60 RBI and snagged 33 bases ... .483 average led all Texas junior colleges ... Named First-Team All-American, All-Region and All-Conference ... Led his team to the Conference Championship ... Freshman season, batted .389 with 63 hits, 25 doubles, 6 homers and 45 RBI ... Named First-Team All-Conference ... Holds single season records at Texarkana J.C. in batting average (.483) and doubles (35).
High School Played high school ball at Lufkin High School in Lufkin, Texas under coach Don Randell.
Personal Full name is Christopher Ryan McClendon ... Son of Roger and Kim McClendon ... Born March 1, 1987 in Lufkin, Texas ... Has a younger sister Collyn (14) ... Father played baseball for two seasons at Angelina J.C.


text:
How to create interactive wireframes and prototypes using Fireworks CS5.
Demonstrates scheduling and expected output for good prototyping, from wireframing to storyboarding to creating multi-page mockups for design feedback.
"I absolutely love lynda.com. You have made learning easy and fun. I recommend it to everyone that I know." —Tom W.
more from our members »


text:
Site menu:
Val Thorens guide
In this Val Thorens guide, you can find out about the resort, ski area, accommodation, restaurants, bars, events during the winter season, and Val Thorens news. Check out our Val Thorens webcams page, and read our Val Thorens weather forecast, which is updated daily throughout the winter. Find the best ski and snowboard hire in Val Thorens, and see our ski schools page. We hope you'll find this the best guide to Val Thorens.
Latest news
Val Thorens guide
Val Thorens resort
The Val Thorens resort section has details of resort facilities including the tourist office, post office, banks, medical centre, church, parking, radio station, and the cinema. There's also a Val Thorens history section, a Val Thorens resort maps page, and information about the sports centre, market, and resort shuttle bus.
Val Thorens ski area
The Val Thorens ski area section covers the beginners' area, and the green runs and easy blues; then the ski area sector by sector. There's a page dedicated to the snow park, skier/boardercross, and the slalom stadium. Here, you can also find a page dedicated to Val Thorens off piste itineraries, a piste map, and the Val Thorens ski pass prices. Finally, we have a guide to the Val Thorens mountain restaurants.
Val Thorens videos
This video shows the Skicross World Cup held in Val Thorens on 10th January 2015:
This video has some of the highlights of the World Cup Skicross on 15th December 2013:
Val Thorens accommodation
Val Thorens offers a wide range of accommodation, from budget apartments to luxury four-star hotels. This is our guide to the hotels, self-catering accommodation, and chalets in Val Thorens.
Val Thorens restaurants
Many of the restaurants in Val Thorens serve Savoyard specialities - fondue, pierrade and raclette. But there are many other dishes on offer, including pizza, steak, and Tex-Mex. This is our complete guide to the restaurants in Val Thorens.
Val Thorens season dates 2015-16
The 2015-16 ski season in Val Thorens is from Saturday 21st November 2015 to Sunday 8th May 2016.
Val Thorens bars
From the traditional British and Irish watering holes, to the distinctly European venues, find the best bars and pubs in Val Thorens.
Val Thorens nightclubs
A guide to the three Val Thorens nightclubs - Summit, Malaysia and Baramix.
Val Thorens events
We have a full list of Val Thorens events for the winter season, and a weekly update of the current week's events during the winter.
Val Thorens news
Reports on the events and news from Val Thorens during the winter season. We post lots of photos and videos. Updated once or twice a week, you can see what's going on in resort, and get an idea of the current snow and weather conditions.
Val Thorens weather
The latest weather forecast for Val Thorens, updated daily during the ski season. You can also listen to the English language version of the weather on Virgin Radio Val Thorens Les Menuires.
Thorens webcams
Val Thorens travel
This Val Thorens travel page has information about the Eurostar ski train, plus flight information, and advice on travelling to Val Thorens by car. There's a page with information about, and links to, transfer companies, for getting to Val Thorens from a station or airport. We also have bus times, and the route and times of the resort shuttle.
Val Thorens ski shops
Our recommended ski shop in Val Thorens is Zenith. Read about ski and snowboard hire and sales, boot-fitting, servicing of your own equipment, and accessories.
Val Thorens ski hire
This is our page on Val Thorens ski and snowboard hire at Zenith ski shop, with all the options, prices. A 20% discount voucher is available to print off.
Val Thorens ski schools
A guide to the ski schools in Val Thorens. We look at all the Val Thorens ski schools, plus the best options for private lessons in Val Thorens. There's even a British ski instructor.
Val Thorens activities
Our guide to the (non-skiing) activities in Val Thorens, including ten pin bowling, tobogganing, ski doos (snowmobiles), ice driving, mountain biking, and paint ball.
Val Thorens tour operators
Read about the tour operators offering packages to Val Thorens. They include Crystal/Thomson, the largest ski tour operator, Inghams, a long-established and reliable company, and more specialist tour operators - such as Skiworld, the chalet specialist, and Erna Low, the self-drive specialist.
Why Val Thorens?
Why do we love Val Thorens? Above all for the snow and terrain. As the highest resort in Europe, it often has some of the best snow. Why ski on icy hardpack, when you've got the option of soft, cold, fresh snow in VT? As for the terrain, there's an extensive beginners' area, kilometres of varied pistes for intermediates, a top-class snowpark, and a skier/boarder cross. You can find a wealth of off-piste, too, including some of the most charming itineraries in the Alps.
The lift system is constantly being improved - for example, in summer 2013, the Val Thorens lift company (SETAM) replaced 3 Vallées 1 chairlift with the modern Pionniers, made improvements to Deux Lacs, 3 Vallées 2 (now called 3 Vallées), and Peyron, and put in a 1300m long zip wire.
All this contributed to Val Thorens winning two awards in November 2013 - for most improved European ski resort, and world's best ski resort. Val Thorens won world's best ski resort again in November 2014.
We're always adding more content. Check out our Lost in Translation page, which has funny translations we've spotted around resort. Send us any you've found, too.
We aim to provide the best guide to Val Thorens. Because we live in resort all winter, you get the inside track on what's happening. Whatever you want to know about the resort, you can find it in this Val Thorens guide!


text:
Labor Studies
On April 3, the NBER's Program on Labor Studies met in Cambridge to discuss recent research. Program Director Richard B. Freeman and Research Associate Lawrence F. Katz, both of NBER and Harvard University, organized the meeting at which the following papers were presented:
Daren Acemoglu, MIT, and Joshua Artgrist, NBER and MIT, "Consequences of Employment Protection: The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act"
Henry S. Farber, NBER and Princeton University, "Union Success in Representation Elections: Do Large and Small Units Differ?"
Coen Teulings, University of Amsterdam, "Aggregation Bias in Elasticities of Substitution"
John J. Donohue, NBER and Stanford University; James J. Heckman, NBER and University of Chicago; and Petra E. Todd, University of Pennsylvania, "Social Action, Private Choice, and Philanthropy: Understanding the Sources of Improvements in Black Schooling in Georgia, 1911-1960"
Harry Holzer, Michigan State University, and David Neumark, NBER and Michigan State University, "What Does Affirmative Action Do?"
David Card, NBER and University of California, Berkeley, and Alan B. Krueger, NBER and Princeton University, "A Reanalysis of the Effect of the New Jersey Minimum Wage Increase on the Fast Food Industry with Representative Payroll Data"
Acemoglu and Angrist note that the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to accommodate disabled workers and outlaws discrimination against the disabled in hiring, firing, and pay. Although the ADA increases costs for employers, its impact turns in part on the provisions that are enforced and on the responsiveness of firm entry and exit to profits. The authors find that the ADA negatively affects employment of disabled workers under age 40 and disabled men over 40, but not disabled women over 40. There is little evidence of an impact on the nondisabled, suggesting that the adverse consequences of employment protection are limited to the protected group.
Farber notes that unions always have been less likely to win National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)-supervised representation elections in large establishments than in small ones, but that the gap in success rates has increased substantially over the last 40 years. lie develops a pair of statistical models of election outcomes, which he then estimates using data on NLRB elections during 1952-95. He finds that the model which constrains the mean difference in prounion vote probability between large and small units to be fixed over time but allows for random heterogeneity across elections can explain the time-series patterns of "win rates" quite well.
While the employment effects of minimum wages are usually reported to be small (suggesting low substitutability among skill types), direct estimates suggest a much larger degree of substitutability. Teulings argues that this is related to a bias induced by the aggregation of skill types into broad categories. He develops a model in which skilled workers have a comparative advantage in complex jobs. His results for the United States show elasticities of complementarity to be underestimated by up to a factor of 5. These results suggest that the reduction of minimum wages during the 1980s contributed substantially to the rise in wage inequality. …


text:
|The most helpful favorable review
|The most helpful critical review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
By John from USA on 2009-01-03 06:37:40Things I liked:I had this modification done to my Falcon hunter. It removes all sensitivity to how the gun is held. There is no getting used to it. It just works perfect. The team at Pyramyd Air are second to none. Keep up the great customer service!!!!!!
Things I would have changed:Nothing
What others should know:Don't buy the gun without this modification. It take the .22Cal to a different level. It shoots like a gun twice the cost. Very accurate and powerful.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
By RobertW from USA on 2012-04-14 13:11:30Things I liked:Nothing! I bought a WFH 22 cal that had this upgrade done to it by PA. These guns are supposed to shoot in the 900 fps range with 14.3 pellets. Mine shoots 750 fps way too slow. This is what my Trail NP shoots and it probably had the same piston installed intop the WFH. Not what it should be. Don't do it.
What others should know:Find some of the new NPistons... by Moller and N Forcer have one of those put in.
|By Brian from USA on 2012-05-03
|By Will from USA on 2011-12-05
|By John from USA on 2014-10-11
|By Seth from USA on 2010-09-04
CheckoutSubtotal (USD):
does not include shipping and tax


text:
Help? Screen Problems
When I open my computer, the screen is at its normal brightness for about 30 seconds. Then, it turns to a darkness where I can hardly see anything on the screen. Does anyone know what this means or how to fix it?
Sounds like the ambient light sensor is adjusting the brightness for you. If you don't like the feature, you can disable it in Apple menu => System Preferences => Display => Display tab => Uncheck "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes".
|All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:03 AM.
Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.


text:
Results 1-3 of 3
Winterthing. The Mooncusser's Daughter.
The Legends of Moonie Jarl
Awful Egyptians (Signed)
Page 1 of 1 | Showing 1-3 of 3
What we do
Get involved
Make a donation
© 2015. Oxfam is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SC039042).
Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International.


text:
The Vampire Diaries
Kayla Ewell on the TVD Salvatore Mansion: "It Is Super Creepy and Scary"
Yikes! Kayla Ewell gives ClevverTV the lowdown on the super spooky real-life Salvatore Mansion on the Vampire Diaries set in Atlanta, GA. Lights flickering, strange sounds, and no one's allowed on the 2nd floor?! Sounds like the TVD crew needs to phone a ghostbuster.


text:
Now Playing
Loading streams...
Connect with Us
Podcasts & RSS Feeds
|All Content
|View all podcasts & RSS feeds
Monkey See
Donald Trump Is Not Running For President, In Case You Thought He Would
By Linda Holmes
Donald Trump's flirtation with running for president apparently came to a halt today as he announced during the NBC upfront presentations (where the network presents its fall schedule) that he would not be running. And, of course, he can therefore continue to appear on The Celebrity Apprentice — whew!
As you may have heard in April during this report from David Folkenflik, not everyone ever believed that Trump had any intention of running for president. But he still managed to grab a large swath of attention for himself. At least he provided Seth Meyers and President Barack Obama with some material at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


text:
New Products - June 2012
auto diagnostic tool
and then went off this morning.Had the error code P0133 pulled today w/the printout saying "Air fueauto diagnostic tool.HINO Trucks diagnostics is a tool equipped with all the functions needed to diagnose the trouble, check functions, and configure the settings of the electronic system built into HINO engines.Hino-Bowie Hino Diagnostic Explorer The program runs on a personal computer equipped with a Windows95/98/200/xp operating system, And it connects to a communication network by means of a diagnosis connector via a communication Interface. After it has been connected to a communication network, it can carry out various operations by extracting information from the engine ECU. l ration (AF) sensor 1 bank 1 circuit slow response"Of course the print out lists several probable causes: Fuel system condition - rich or lean; Large vacuum leak; Exhaust system leak near af sensor; AF sensor heater condition; Faulty af sensorWhere should I start?Check for an exhaust leak.If no leak found, replace A/F Ratio sensor.bmw icom interface
Thanks for sharing the
Thanks for sharing the information.I appreciate your efforts towards the post as you have explained each and every minute information about newly released standalone G100 and G200 VoIP Gateways including the supporting applications.
dermatend skin tag removal
But agenda that the affair
But agenda that the affair there is the opposite. Developing for earlier versions of IE would frequently vehicle diagnostic equipment breach browsers that ashore with standards.
Thanks for taking this
Thanks for taking this opportunity to discuss this, I appreciate with this and if you have some more information please share it with me skin tags
Do you like buy things in China Store ?
do you like buy things in China Store ?
Geek Guides
Practical (and free!) books for the most technical people on the planet.
- NEW: Get in the Fast Lane with NVMe
- NEW: Take Control of Growing Redis NoSQL Server Clusters
- Linux in the Time of Malware
- Apache Web Servers and SSL Encryption
- Build a Private Cloud for Less Than $10,000!
Plus many more.
Trending Topics
|Secure Server Deployments in Hostile Territory, Part II
|Jul 29, 2015
|Hacking a Safe with Bash
|Jul 28, 2015
|KDE Reveals Plasma Mobile
|Jul 28, 2015
|Huge Package Overhaul for Debian and Ubuntu
|Jul 23, 2015
|diff -u: What's New in Kernel Development
|Jul 22, 2015
|Shashlik - a Tasty New Android Simulator
|Jul 21, 2015
- Secure Server Deployments in Hostile Territory, Part II
- Hacking a Safe with Bash
- KDE Reveals Plasma Mobile
- Huge Package Overhaul for Debian and Ubuntu
- Home Automation with Raspberry Pi
- Shashlik - a Tasty New Android Simulator
- The Controversy Behind Canonical's Intellectual Property Policy
- Embed Linux in Monitoring and Control Systems
- diff -u: What's New in Kernel Development
- General Relativity in Python


text:
The press conference for The Hangover Part II was today, so already the question of a third Hangover came up. Obviously this one will make money so we should expect the next one. Part II pretty much follows the template of the original, only international and deadlier. Director and co-writer Todd Phillips must know the rule of trilogies, because he's planning to change it up for the finale.
"It's certainly not in the same template that you've seen these movies," Phillips said. "Obviously we always envisioned it as a trilogy as you can imagine. The third would be very much a finale and an ending. The most I could say about it, what's in my head, and I haven't discussed it with these actors, is that it is not following that template but very much a new idea."
I don't expect it to stop at III. You could always do spinoffs. "Listen, I love this world that we've created," Phillips said. "I love every actor in these movies, even all the ones that aren't here today as well. Who knows, we do a Mr. Chow movie, I haven't talked to Ken [Jeong] about it but Chow is definitely a man of mystery much like Austin Powers. He obviously has a web that is woven deep in crime and women."
It doesn't even have to be connected to this set of characters. You could always throw new comedians into more hangover situations. "Yeah, please tell that to these guys and their agents," Phillips deflected. "No, I would not see spinning it off like that. I wouldn't do that."
With that, Ed Helms jumped in. "We're just like the kids in the Vacation movies," Helms said, making reference to the rotating cast of Griswold kids including Anthony Michael Hall and Juliette Lewis in different entries.
The Hangover series has already gone from Las Vegas to Bangkok, so Phillips reiterated his joke about where a third one could be set. "As far as where it takes place, I said I'm very open, like the Olympic committee, to being pitched and presented cities, flown around with wine and women and bribed," Phillips said. "Then I will make my decision."
The Hangover Part II opens May 26.
Consider posting a comment.
hangover part III will take place on mars
hangover part III will take place on mars
we see hangover II when you seen the first, all jokes and plot are the same…basicly we pay twice to see the same movie…no wonder why people in hollywood are rich, we dont even make them work..


text:
- kale (edible plant: Brassica oleracea acephala)
This Icelandic entry was created from the translations listed at kale. It may be less reliable than other entries, and may be missing parts of speech or additional senses. Please also see grænkál in the Icelandic Wiktionary. This notice will be removed when the entry is checked. (more information) August 2010


text:
By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2006 One result of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was the establishment of U.S. Northern Command to deal with threats aimed at the United States, the organization's commander said here today.
During an interview at the Pentagon's Radio Day event, Navy Adm. Timothy Keating spoke his personal experiences during the attack and about his command.
Keating, who is also the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, was the Navy's director of operations in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. "I was in the operations update when the news hit of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center," Keating said to Washington Post Radio. "We were quite bewildered. We couldn't understand how a pilot could make such a significant navigational error on a day when the skies were crystal clear blue."
He said he left the update and went to his office and saw the second airplane hit the World Trade Center. Understanding now that it was an attack, Keating made some phone calls and was headed back to the operations center when he felt the Pentagon shake. "Flight 77 came into the west wall right next to the helicopter pad," he said.
The flames and smoke came through the passageways of the Pentagon. Keating said he tried to get to the operations center via another entrance, but it soon became apparent that the Navy Operations Center was one of the areas hit by the plane. "There were 26 young men and women who had given me that ops update just that morning who perished on watch in our command center," he said.
The fact that the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 crashed, were combat zones that day spurred the creation of U.S. Northern Command.
Then-Defense Secretary William S. Cohen originally suggested a "homeland defense-type command" in 1998. But it wasn't until the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, that all saw the need for the command. U.S. Northern Command stood up Oct. 1, 2002, and its area of operations includes air, land and sea approaches and covers the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. It also covers the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida.
Keating said the command now plans for the unthinkable. On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of planes were in the air when the four were hijacked. NORAD officials could not scramble military jets fast enough to intercept and possibly shoot down the airliners before they were used as weapons. "To be able to sort through all those normal flights that are being conducted was a tough order for us that morning," Keating said. "We're much better at it today than we were five years ago, and we're much better prepared to handle a situation like that today."


text:
DOEA Information and Statistics
2013 DOEA Older Floridians Profile
2015 Summary of Programs and Services
DOEA 2012 Informational Brochure
The Alzheimer's Disease Initiative (ADI)
File Type Information:
PDF file type means that the documents are in Portable Document File format and the Adobe Reader software is required to view them. Click on the Get Adobe Reader button below to download and install the free Adobe Reader software.
|Download Free MS Word Viewer, Free MS Excel Viewer.


text:
Barry Basham, PGA
Main Address:
Sun Valley Golf Course
Louisville, KY 40272-3757
(502) 937-9228
Louisville, KY 40272-3757
(502) 937-9228
6505 Bethany Ln
Louisville, KY 40272-3757
Louisville, KY 40272-3757
(502) 937-9228
Barry Basham is a PGA Professional in Louisville, KY. The PGA of America comprises 27,000 men and women professionals with one singular goal in mind - to make the game of golf more enjoyable for you.
Services Offered:
- Instruction
Professional has not entered award information.
Home » Golf Courses » Kentucky » Louisville » Barry Basham, PGA
PGA of America Championships
Philadelphia Cricket Club
Philadelphia, Pa.
Whistling Straits
Kohler, Wis.
Hazeltine National Golf Club
Chaska, Minn.


text:
Toba Batak language
|Batak Toba
|Native to
|Samosir Island (2° 30′ N, 99°), and to the east, south, and west of Toba Lake in north Sumatra.
Native speakers
|2 million (1991)[1]
|Latin, Batak alphabet
|Language codes
Batak Toba /ˈtoʊbə ˈbætək/[3] is an Austronesian language spoken in North Sumatra province in Indonesia. It is part of a group of languages called "Batak".
There are approximately 2,000,000 Batak Toba speakers, living to the east, west and south of Lake Toba. Historically it was written using Batak script, but the Latin script is now used for most writing.
Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk was involved in translating the Christian Bible into Batak Toba.
Name of the language[edit]
The name of this language arises from a rich and complex history of ethnic identity in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia. It is a generic name for the common language used by the people of the districts of Toba, Uluan, Humbang, Habinsaran, Samosir, and Silindung, centered upon the Island of Sumatra; more particularly, at Lake Toba. Linguistically and culturally these tribes of people are closely related. Other nearby communities such as Silalahi and Tongging may also be classified as speakers of Toba Batak.
The term "Toba Batak" is, itself, a derivation of the Toba Batak language. As such, it is used both as a noun and an adjective; both to describe a language, and also to describe the people who speak the language.
Among the aforementioned districts, Toba is the most densely populated and politically the most prominent district so that "Toba Batak" became a label for all communities speaking a dialect closely akin to the dialect spoken in Toba. In contemporary Indonesia the language is seldom referred to as "Toba Batak" (bahasa Batak Toba), but more commonly and simply as "Batak" (bahasa Batak). The (Toba)-Batak refer to it in their own language as "Hata Batak". This "Batak" language is different from the languages of other "Batak" people that can be divided in speaking a northern Batak dialect (Karo Batak, and Pakpak-Dairi Batak – linguistically this dialect group also includes the culturally very different Alas people), a central Batak dialect (Simalungun) and closely related other southern Batak dialects such as Angkola and Mandailing.
Description of the language[edit]
There are several dictionaries and grammars for each of the five major dialects of Batak (Angkola-Mandailing, Toba, Simalungun, Pakpak-Dairi, and Karo). Specifically for Toba Batak the most important dictionaries are that of Johannes Warneck (Toba-German) and Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk (Toba-Dutch).
- Reference to contemporary Batak Bible
- Example translation of Biblical Scripture (published by the Language Museum, a site published by Zhang Hong, an internet consultant and amateur linguist in Beijing China)
- Musgrave, Simon. Non-subject Arguments in Indonesian: Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. See page 112 (doc page 101) and reference to Cole, Peter & Gabriella Hermon (2000) Word order and binding in Toba Batak. Paper presented at AFLA 7, Amsterdam
- Sejara Indonesia An Online Outline of Indonesia History.
- Neubronner van der Tuuk, Hermanus. A grammar of Toba-Batak. The Hague, 1971. First English edition, first published in Dutch in 1864-1867. Translation J. Scott-Kemball, edited by A. Teeuw and R. Roolvink.
- http://www.language-archives.org/language/bbc
- ^ Batak Toba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Batak Toba". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
|Toba Batak language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator


text: The Superstore stocks the highest quality replacement filters for Hague Reverse Osmosis Water Systems. We have listed each set of water filters for each model for your convenience. If you have any questions, feel free to call one of our trained professionals that can help you with any question, at 1888-309-2837.


text:
More information about "Dhaka"
Below you can find your competitors – also show yourself to Dhaka!
Click here for your Exposé
Saiful Hasan @ Dhaka
Sifat, Facebook, Dhaka
Tabibul Islam
29.02.2000: 28-Feb-0* *** Title: RIGHTS-BANGLADESH: Urban Poor Challenge Slum Demolition in Dhaka By Tabibul Islam DHAKA, Feb 28 (IPS) - At least 30 persons, …
Anbarasan Ethirajan
10.08.2011: ... Dhaka http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14470960?print=true
Muhibul Haque
21.09.2011: … The Dhaka office of Bangladesh's Amar Desh newspaper was stormed by police on Wednesday, just hours after Dhaka's deputy commissioner, Muhibul …
Mohammed Hasanuzzaman
News: UNHCR asks Dhaka for access to fleeing Burmese: 02.06.1996: Mohammed Hasanuzzaman mha…@impromptu.eecs.umich.edu soc culture bangladesh DHAKA, Bangladesh …
Nicolas Haque
Dhaka videos - by Video Site: Dhaka, Bangladesh is one of the world's fastest-growing cities, with a middle class quickly on the rise among the 13 million residents. …
Zainul Haque
Zainul Haque Sikder Women's Medical College, Dhaka; Dhaka National Medical College, Dhaka; Community Based Medical College, Mymensingh; Moulana Bhasani Medical …
Gausul Azam
bangla naat ( Eshayat Shammelon 2012 ) Dhaka _ kagatia alia gausul azam darbar sharif bangladesh · bangla naat ( Eshayat Shammelon 2012 ) Dhaka _ ...
Raihanul Abedin
Abdullah Harun Pasha, chairman of Dhaka Wasa and Raihanul Abedin, managing director of Dhaka Wasa, also spoke at the ceremony. Dhaka Wasa: http://www.dwasa.org.bd
Haroon Habib
… 13 October 2009; 'Maritime boundary: Dhaka hopes to get fair deal' New Age (Dhaka), 12 October 2009; 'Dhaka to take row with India, Myanmar to U.N.' Haroon …
Nadeem Qadir
AFP/Nadeem Qadir ; Global [27,419] [7 ratings] 1 Comments | Add Yours; Send Story; Print Story; Stories of Interest; Destination: Bangladesh | Dhaka
Minhaz Rahman
Dhaka city college fun 2011 1st year batch comerce section A-5 video by ... Minhaz Rahman.wmv
Mahmuda Islam
Dr. Mahmuda Islam Assoc. Prof. Dept of Sociology Dhaka Univ. Dhaka, BANGLADESH. Dr. Anwarullah Chaudhury Chairman, Dept of Sociology Dhaka Univ. Dhaka, BANGLADESH
Nilufar Nahar
Nilufar Nahar; Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000 M Mosihuzzaman; Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Dhaka
Mohammed Mridha
Title Title: Khan Mohammed Mosque, Old Dhaka Description Description: Khan Mohammed Mridha's mosque in Old Dhaka. Categories Themes: [Parks/Historical [Urban
People by job: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWY People by company: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ


text:
City declares today Chinedum Ndukwe day
Bengals safety humbled by award
CINCINNATI - Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and the city proclaimed Thursday,February 10, 2011 as "Chinedum Ndukwe Day".
The Bengals safety was honored during a ceremony at CityHall.
City council member Wendell Young presented Chinedum with thehonor in front of several of his family, friends, and NdukweFoundation board members.
"It's an honor, a humbling experience for them tothink enough for the work that my foundations done in the city ofCincinnati. To give me a day that will forever be here, long afterall of us are gone," said Ndukwe.
The Columbus, Ohio native created his wellness foundation a fewyears back as a way to give back to the youth of the communitythrough wellness camps, youth leagues, and after school programs.As he reflected on what inspired him to give back to the city, hedescribed how it all started when an aunt of an old high schoolfriend asked him to come speak to her students at Bond HillElementary. She had asked several times throughout his busy rookieyear and Ndukwe finally got a chance after the season.
"The 20 minutes I spent with those kids felt like 30seconds. In my eyes I was just some rookie in the NFL trying toearn my stripes here in Cincinnati. But to them I was a hero.That's when I knew 20 minutes wouldn't be enough forme, he added.
To see the ceremony and hear more of Ndukwe's thoughts,click on the video tab.