Is the human eye a perfect optic?

Michael Mrochen; Maik Kaemmerer; Peter Mierdel; Hans-Eberhard Krinke; Theo Seiler

doi:10.1117/12.429287

7 June 2001 Is the human eye a perfect optic?

Michael Mrochen, Maik Kaemmerer, Peter Mierdel, Hans-Eberhard Krinke, Theo Seiler

Proceedings Volume 4245, Ophthalmic Technologies XI; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.429287
Event: BiOS 2001 The International Symposium on Biomedical Optics, 2001, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the optical aberrations of higher order in a normal population and to answer the question on the optical quality of the human eye. Therefore, the optical aberrations of 130 eyes (90 individuals) have been measured by means of a wavefront measuring devices of Tscherning's-type. The pupil of each measured eye was dilated to at least 7 mm in diameter and wavefront sensing was performed with respect to the line of sight. The optical aberrations are expressed in terms of Zernike coefficients up to the 6th order, root-means-squared wavefront errors and critical pupil size. The main finding of this paper is that the `average eye' has only minimal wavefront errors indicating that the construction of the human eye, in principle, provides excellent optics exceeding the Marechal- criterion only by a factor of 2.1 (pupil diameter 5 mm). However, such minimal aberrations are achieved in only 6% of the individual eyes examined in this study. In conclusion, the `averaged human' eye has nearly a perfect optic, but the individual eye provides poor optical quality.

Citation Download Citation

Michael Mrochen, Maik Kaemmerer, Peter Mierdel, Hans-Eberhard Krinke, and Theo Seiler "Is the human eye a perfect optic?", Proc. SPIE 4245, Ophthalmic Technologies XI, (7 June 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.429287

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