Non-Contact IOP Estimation Based on Corneal Stress Birefringence: Experimental and Computational Validation

Accurate intraocular pressure (IOP) assessment is essential for glaucoma diagnosis and follow-up. Conventional contact tonometry (e.g., Goldmann and rebound devices) remains widely used, but its accuracy is affected by operator dependence, alignment errors, and patient discomfort. We present a non-contact IOP estimation framework based on corneal stress birefringence and full-field fringe inversion. Ex vivo porcine corneas were imaged under controlled pressure loading from 15 to 20 mmHg, and a coupled stress-optic/shell mechanics model was used to generate pressure-indexed synthetic fringe fields for inverse fitting. In the 15–18 mmHg range, more than 75% of the estimates were within plus or minus 1 mmHg of the reference pressure; performance declined at 19–20 mmHg, consistent with a stronger nonlinear biomechanical response and reduced fringe separability. Defect experiments further showed that local stiffness loss caused both near-defect distortion and far-field stress redistribution, supporting the need for full-field rather than point-wise analysis. These results indicate that stress-birefringence imaging is a promising route toward non-contact, region-sensitive IOP assessment.