Measurement of the wave-front aberration of the eye by a fast psychophysical procedure (original) (raw)
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Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 1998
The Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor offers many theoretical advantages over other methods for measuring aberrations of the eye; therefore it is essential that its accuracy be thoroughly tested. We assessed the accuracy of a Shack-Hartmann sensor by directly comparing its measured wave-front aberration function with that obtained by the Smirnov psychophysical method for the same eyes. Wave-front profiles measured by the two methods agreed closely in terms of shape and magnitude with rms differences of ϳ/2 and ϳ/6 (5.6-mm pupil) for two eyes. Primary spherical aberration was dominant in these profiles, and, in one subject, secondary coma was opposite in sign to primary coma, thereby canceling its effect. Discovery of an unusual, subtle wave-front anomaly in one individual further demonstrated the accuracy and sensitivity of the Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor for measuring the optical quality of the human eye.
Statistical description of wave-front aberration in the human eye
Optics Letters, 2002
The wave aberration of the human eye has been measured by means of a Hartmann -Shack wave-front sensor in a population of normal subjects. The set of data has been used to compute the phase distribution, the power spectrum, and the structure function for the average eye to analyze the statistics of the ocular aberration considered as a phase screen. The observed statistics fits the classical Kolmogorov model of a statistically homogeneous medium. These results can be of use in understanding the average effect of aberrations on the retinal image and can serve as a tool to analyze the consequences of ocular-aberration compensation by adaptive optics, customized ophtalmic elements, or refractive surgery.
Psychophysical measurement of the blur on the retina due to optical aberrations of the eye
Vision Research, 1990
The blur on the retina in the horizontal meridian due to monochromatic and chromatic aberrations has been measured using a novel psychophysical technique. Longitudinal chromatic aberration gives the dominant blur for pupil sizes of 4-5 mm, followed by monochromatic aberrations, and blur due to optical transverse chromatic aberration. In some eyes, coma was present as a result of a displacement of the axis of symmetry from the centre of the pupil, but in three eyes, coma was present without spherical aberration. The technique also allows a measurement of the effective pupil centre relative to the geometric centre and a partial analysis of the relative positions of the nference axes of the eye. Monochromatic aberration optical and visual axes Chromatic aberration Retinal image blur Pupil centration INTRODUCTIGN Current methods of measuring the optical aberrations of the eye are time consuming in either the experimental or computational phases (see Charman, 1983 for a review). That the aberrations are somewhat irregular across the pupil has long been known (Van den Brink, 1962; Smimov, 1962) but the frequent predominance in the image of comatic aberrations, suggested by Howland and Howland (1976, 1977), has only recently been confirmed by a measurement of the point spread function with improved resolution (Santamaria, Artel & B&OS, 1987). Although a point spread function (P.S.F.) measurement provides a complete description of image blur including the effects of scattered light, the optical transfer function is not uniquely defined from the P.S.F. and the P.S.F. must be remeasured at every pupil size. An attempt is made in this paper to develop a simpler and more accurate method of rn~s~ng optical aberrations with a graphical analysis of the image blur and the resulting symmetry of the aberrations. Combined with an analysis of pupil centre shifts with illumination, this method would have the potential to provide a more
Wave aberration of human eyes and new descriptors of image optical quality and visual performance
Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, 2010
The expansion of wavefront-sensing techniques redefined the meaning of refractive error in clinical ophthalmology. Clinical aberrometers provide detailed measurements of the eye's wavefront aberration. The distribution and contribution of each higher-order aberration to the overall wavefront aberration in the individual eye can now be accurately determined and predicted. Using corneal or ocular wavefront sensors, studies have measured the interindividual and age-related changes in the wavefront aberration in the normal population with the goal of optimizing refractive surgery outcomes for the individual. New objective optical-quality metrics would lead to better use and interpretation of newly available information on aberrations in the eye. However, the first metrics introduced, based on sets of Zernike polynomials, is not completely suitable to depict visual quality because they do not directly relate to the quality of the retinal image. Thus, several approaches to describe the real, complex optical performance of human eyes have been implemented. These include objective metrics that quantify the quality of the optical wavefront in the plane of the pupil (ie, pupil-plane metrics) and others that quantify the quality of the retinal image (ie, image-plane metrics). These metrics are derived by wavefront aberration information from the individual eye. This paper reviews the more recent knowledge of the wavefront aberration in human eyes and discusses the image-quality and optical-quality metrics and predictors that are now routinely calculated by wavefront-sensor software to describe the optical and image quality in the individual eye.
Dynamics of the eye’s wave aberration
Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 2001
It is well known that the eye's optics exhibit temporal instability in the form of microfluctuations in focus; however, almost nothing is known of the temporal properties of the eye's other aberrations. We constructed a real-time Hartmann-Shack (HS) wave-front sensor to measure these dynamics at frequencies as high as 60 Hz. To reduce spatial inhomogeneities in the short-exposure HS images, we used a low-coherence source and a scanning system. HS images were collected on three normal subjects with natural and paralyzed accommodation. Average temporal power spectra were computed for the wave-front rms, the Seidel aberrations, and each of 32 Zernike coefficients. The results indicate the presence of fluctuations in all of the eye's aberration, not just defocus. Fluctuations in higher-order aberrations share similar spectra and bandwidths both within and between subjects, dropping at a rate of approximately 4 dB per octave in temporal frequency. The spectrum shape for higher-order aberrations is generally different from that for microfluctuations of accommodation. The origin of these measured fluctuations is not known, and both corneal/lenticular and retinal causes are considered. Under the assumption that they are purely corneal or lenticular, calculations suggest that a perfect adaptive optics system with a closed-loop bandwidth of 1-2 Hz could correct these aberrations well enough to achieve diffraction-limited imaging over a dilated pupil.
Aberrations and retinal image quality of the normal human eye
Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 1997
We have constructed a wave-front sensor to measure the irregular as well as the classical aberrations of the eye, providing a more complete description of the eye's aberrations than has previously been possible. We show that the wave-front sensor provides repeatable and accurate measurements of the eye's wave aberration. The modulation transfer function of the eye computed from the wave-front sensor is in fair, though not complete, agreement with that obtained under similar conditions on the same observers by use of the double-pass and the interferometric techniques. Irregular aberrations, i.e., those beyond defocus, astigmatism, coma, and spherical aberration, do not have a large effect on retinal image quality in normal eyes when the pupil is small (3 mm). However, they play a substantial role when the pupil is large (7.3-mm), reducing visual performance and the resolution of images of the living retina. Although the pattern of aberrations varies from subject to subject, aberrations, including irregular ones, are correlated in left and right eyes of the same subject, indicating that they are not random defects.
Biomedical Optics Express, 2012
Conventional optical systems usually provide best image quality on axis, while showing unavoidable gradual decrease in image quality towards the periphery of the field. The optical system of the human eye is not an exception. Within a limiting boundary the image quality can be considered invariant with field angle, and this region is known as the isoplanatic patch. We investigate the isoplanatic patch of eight healthy eyes and measure the wavefront aberration along the pupillary axis compared to the line of sight. The results are used to discuss methods of ocular aberration correction in wide-field retinal imaging with particular application to multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems.
BMC ophthalmology, 2004
Recently, instruments for the measurement of wavefront aberration in the living human eye have been widely available for clinical applications. Despite the extensive background experience on wavefront sensing for research purposes, the information derived from such instrumentation in a clinical setting should not be considered a priori precise. We report on the variability of such an instrument at two different pupil sizes. A clinical aberrometer (COAS Wavefront Scienses, Ltd) based on the Shack-Hartmann principle was employed in this study. Fifty consecutive measurements were performed on each right eye of four subjects. We compared the variance of individual Zernike expansion coefficients as determined by the aberrometer with the variance of coefficients calculated using a mathematical method for scaling the expansion coefficients to reconstruct wavefront aberration for a reduced-size pupil. Wavefront aberration exhibits a marked variance of the order of 0.45 microns near the edge...
Journal of The Optical Society of America A-optics Image Science and Vision, 2002
Ocular aberrations were measured in 71 eyes by using two reflectometric aberrometers, employing laser ray tracing (LRT) (60 eyes) and a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor (S-H) (11 eyes). In both techniques a point source is imaged on the retina (through different pupil positions in the LRT or a single position in the S-H). The aberrations are estimated by measuring the deviations of the retinal spot from the reference as the pupil is sampled (in LRT) or the deviations of a wave front as it emerges from the eye by means of a lenslet array (in the S-H). In this paper we studied the effect of different polarization configurations in the aberration measurements, including linearly polarized light and circularly polarized light in the illuminating channel and sampling light in the crossed or parallel orientations. In addition, completely depolarized light in the imaging channel was obtained from retinal lipofuscin autofluorescence. The intensity distribution of the retinal spots as a function of entry (for LRT) or exit pupil (for S-H) depends on the polarization configuration. These intensity patterns show bright corners and a dark area at the pupil center for crossed polarization, an approximately Gaussian distribution for parallel polarization and a homogeneous distribution for the autofluorescence case. However, the measured aberrations are independent of the polarization states. These results indicate that the differences in retardation across the pupil imposed by corneal birefringence do not produce significant phase delays compared with those produced by aberrations, at least within the accuracy of these techniques. In addition, differences in the recorded aerial images due to changes in polarization do not affect the aberration measurements in these reflectometric aberrometers.