Biometric measurement of the anterior segment is of great importance for the ophthalmology, human eye modeling, contact lens fitting, intraocular lens design, etc. This paper serves as a comprehensive review on the historical development and basic principles of the technologies for measuring the geometric profiles of the anterior segment. Both the advantages and drawbacks of the current technologies are illustrated. For in vivo measurement of the anterior segment, there are two main challenges that need to be addressed to achieve high speed, fine resolution, and large range imaging. One is the motion artefacts caused by the inevitable and random human eye movement. The other is the serious multiple scattering effects in intraocular turbid media. The future research perspectives are also outlined in this paper.
Keywords: anterior segment; corneal topography; geometric measurement; tomography.