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Vohnsen, Brian
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Vohnsen, Brian
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Vohnsen, Brian
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
- PublicationMonocular foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal accommodation response to random defocus step changesAccommodation of the human eye relies on multiple factors, including – object size, monochromatic and chromatic aberrations, and vergence, and corrects defocus even in monocular conditions. Previous studies have been done to understand whether the retina can decode the sign of defocus as this may play a role for emmetropization and possibly also accommodation. Yet, findings have not been unambiguous and questions remain. Thus, in this study we tried to understand how accommodation makes use of defocus blur to detect the sign of defocus by performing experiments using a fast wavefront sensor in a vision testing system while eliminating other visual cues that may otherwise confound the analysis. A new automated method has been introduced to study monocular accommodation by using a currentdriven tunable lens (TL) to induce a random sequence of defocus step changes within the accommodative range of each observer. The response was captured in real time using a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor (HS-WFS) operating at 20 Hz while detecting aberrations and Zernike coefficients until 4th radial order across a 3 mm limited pupil. Foveal, parafoveal and perifoveal accommodation has been studied for young emmetropes and myopes to determine until which eccentricity accommodation is triggered. Our findings show that the accommodative range diminishes with eccentricity and at 14° (diameter) and beyond it becomes largely absent.
72 - PublicationVirtual pyramid wavefront sensor for phase unwrappingNoise affects wavefront reconstruction from wrapped phase data. A novel method of phase unwrapping is proposed with the help of a virtual pyramid wavefront sensor. The method was tested on noisy wrapped phase images obtained experimentally with a digital phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer. The virtuality of the pyramid wavefront sensor allows easy tuning of the pyramid apex angle and modulation amplitude. It is shown that an optimal modulation amplitude obtained by monitoring the Strehl ratio helps in achieving better accuracy. Through simulation studies and iterative estimation, it is shown that the virtual pyramid wavefront sensor is robust to random noise.
59Scopus© Citations 2 - PublicationThe retina and the Stiles–Crawford effectsRefraction by the anterior eye is essential for proper focusing of light in the formation of images of the exterior world onto the retina. However, it is the absorption by pigments located within the photoreceptor cells that triggers the visual system. Understanding light-photoreceptor interactions is therefore necessary to unravel the complexities in the last optical step in the eye prior to subsequent neural responses. In the human retina, there are two kinds of photoreceptors that are responsible for vision, namely, the rods and the cones. The rods are responsible for dim light (scotopic) vision, whereas the cones are responsible for vision in normal and bright light (photopic) conditions. The transition from pure rod to cone-mediated vision is a combination of the two (mesoscopic) whereby the visual system has an astonishingly large dynamical range that spans about 12 log units, most of which is accomplished by the retina as changes in pupil size account for little more than 1 log unit.
101 - PublicationDefocus-corrected analysis of the foveal Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind across the visible spectrumThe Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind describes a gradually diminished visibility of light that enters the eye towards the pupil rim. Although of retinal origin, it is commonly described by a Gaussian pupil apodization whose width is determined by a directionality parameter that depends on retinal eccentricity, wavelength and spatial coherence of the light. As the measurements are done psychophysically they are prone to subjective variations and difficult to obtain across the visible spectrum. In this work, requirements for accurate refractive correction when determining the directionality parameter at any given wavelength are discussed and we show that a current-controlled tunable liquid-polymer lens provides a convenient means to accomplish this without requiring mechanical readjustments. This may be the most convenient way to combat defocus across the visible spectrum in the analysis of the Stiles-Crawford effect as demonstrated through experiments and with a detailed Zemax eye-and-system analysis. The results obtained are discussed in relation to myopia and a reduced directionality for highly myopic eyes. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.
71Scopus© Citations 8 - PublicationAnalysing the impact of myopia on the Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind using a digital micromirror devicePurpose: Photoreceptor light acceptance is closely tied to the Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE-I). Whether the SCE-I plays a role in myopic development remains unclear although a reduction in directionality has been predicted for high myopia. The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between foveal SCE-I directionality, axial length, and defocus for emmetropic subjects wearing ophthalmic trial lenses during psychophysical measurements and for myopic subjects with their natural correction. Method: A novel uniaxial flicker system has been implemented making use of a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) to flicker between a 2.3 visual degrees circular reference and a set of circular test patterns in a monocular Maxwellian view at 1 Hz. The brightness of the test is adjusted by the duty cycle of the projected light to an upper limit of 22727 Hz. The wavelength and bandwidth are set by a tuneable liquid-crystal filter centred at 550 nm. A total of 4 measurement series for 11 pupil entrance points have been realized for the right eye of 5 emmetropic and 8 myopic subjects whose pupils were dilated with tropicamide. The emmetropic subjects wore ophthalmic trial lenses in the range of -3 to +9 dioptres to mimic hyperopic to highly myopic vision and resulting visibility plots have been fitted to a Gaussian SCE-I function. In turn, the myopic subjects wore their natural correction during the analysis of the SCE-I. All subjects had their axial length determined with an ultrasound device. Results: A SCE-I directionality parameter for well-corrected vision in the range of 0.03 to 0.06/mm2 was found for the emmetropic subjects with corrected vision in fair agreement to values in the literature. The results also revealed a marked reduction in directionality in the range from 16% to 30% with every 3 dioptre increase of simulated myopia, as well as a 10% increased directionality in simulated hyperopic eyes. For both emmetropic and myopic subjects a decrease in directionality with axial length was found in agreement with theoretical expectations. Conclusion: The study confirms a clear link between SCE-I directionality, uncorrected defocus, and axial length. This may play a role for emmetropization and thus myopic progression as cone photoreceptors capture light from a wider pupil area in elongated eyes due to a geometrical scaling.
582Scopus© Citations 25 - PublicationMulti-faceted digital pyramid wavefront sensorThe modulated pyramid wavefront sensor is known for its high sensitivity and adjustable dynamic range. The need for mechanically moving parts in a modulated pyramid wavefront sensor can be overcome by using the recently proposed digital pyramid wavefront sensor. In this paper, a digital multi-faceted pyramid wavefront sensor is demonstrated with the use of a reflecting phase-only spatial light modulator. The four-pupil digital pyramid wavefront sensor with 4-facets is extended to 6 and 8-facets. It is noted from the experiments performed under identical low-noise conditions that the performance of the wavefront sensor in terms of the root mean square wavefront error remains nearly the same in cases of four, six and eight pupil configurations. Under the circumstances elucidated here, the results of simulations indicate that in the presence of scatter noise, the pyramid wavefront sensor with greater number of pupils could lead to an improvement over the standard four-pupil pyramid wavefront sensor. Noise from scattering makes the choice of optimal modulation radius critical while sensing in open-loop adaptive optics systems.
85Scopus© Citations 11 - PublicationRate of riboflavin diffusion from intrastromal channels before corneal crosslinking(Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2016-03)
; ; Purpose To determine the diffusion of riboflavin from intrastromal channels through the effective diffusion coefficients compared with traditional axial diffusion with epithelium on or off. Setting Advanced Optical Imaging Laboratory, University College Dublin, and Wellington Eye Clinic, Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland. Design Experimental study. Methods The rate of diffusion in whole-mounted porcine eyes was monitored for a 30 minutes using an optical setup with a charge-coupled device camera and a bandpass filter (central wavelength 550 nm and 40 nm bandpass) to image the fluorescence under ultraviolet illumination (365 nm wavelength). For comparison, an isotropic corneal stroma with an annular channel was modeled numerically for different diffusion constants and boundary conditions. Results Numerical and experimental results were compared, allowing determination of the effective diffusion coefficient for each case. Experimental results for 6 different riboflavin solutions were in all cases found to be higher than for the common crosslinking (CXL) riboflavin protocol, where the diffusion constant is D0 = 6.5 × 10-5 mm2/sec. For the intrastromal channel, 2 isotonic solutions containing riboflavin 0.1% correlated with a diffusion constant of 5D0 = 32.5 × 10-5 mm2/sec. Hypotonic solutions and transepithelium had a higher diffusion coefficient approaching 10D0 = 65.0 × 10-5 mm2/sec, which is an order-of-magnitude increase compared with the typical diffusion coefficient found in standard CXL. Conclusions In this study, riboflavin had a faster stromal diffusion when injected into a corneal channel than when applied as drops to the anterior corneal surface. Further numerical modeling might allow optimization of the channel structure for any specific choice of riboflavin.86Scopus© Citations 6 - PublicationMonocular accommodation response to random defocus changes induced by a tuneable lensAccommodation of the human eye relies on multiple factors and visual cues that include object size, monochromatic and chromatic aberrations, and vergence. Yet, even in monocular conditions, accommodation corrects for defocus. Studies of eye growth in chicks have addressed whether the retina can decode the sign of defocus as this may play a role for emmetropization and possibly also accommodation. However, findings have not been unambiguous and questions remain. Here, we report on monocular accommodation studies of emmetropic and myopic human subjects to clarify whether foveal vision drives accommodation in the correct direction by removing out-of-focus blur potentially before relying on other cues. Subjects viewed monocularly a green target at 1-meter distance while being presented with a random sequence of negative defocus step changes induced by a pupil-conjugated currentdriven tuneable lens. The natural pupil was constricted by a pupil-conjugated motorized iris using three different diameters and target brightness was set with a liquid crystal variable attenuator. A Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor with an infrared beacon captured real-time changes of defocus and Zernike polynomial coefficients up to 4th radial order. We find that the young adult eye accommodates reliably in the correct direction but with a latency of 300 – 700 ms. The findings are discussed in relation to an absorption model of light in outer segments 2 that breaks the defocus symmetry and thus may serve as a plausible guide for accommodation and emmetropization.
293Scopus© Citations 12 - PublicationGeometrical scaling of the developing eye and photoreceptors and a possible relation to emmetropization and myopiaIn this study the role of vergence in relation to age-dependent scaling of eye and photoreceptor parameters is studied. The underlying hypothesis is that the size and packing of outer segments is matched to the pupil size outdoors in photopic conditions. Vergence is analysed in relation to the angular spectrum of waves being incident using age-dependent data from the literature for the actual geometry and density of photoreceptor cones and rods. This approach is used to derive simple relations for the angular confinement of light along outer segments. Only with a small photopic pupil can leakage and crosstalk for both central and peripheral photoreceptors be entirely ruled out due to the finite length of the outer segments. A limiting 3 mm pupil size is found for children in the school age. Larger pupils will increase the likelihood of leakage and crosstalk that may therefore impact on emmetropization. This study has introduced a new paradigm in myopia research by considering vergence across the 3-D retina as being matched to the angular spectrum of waves being incident from the eye pupil. Emmetropization suggests a delicate balance between photoreceptor outer segment length and density in relation to pupil size. Only when balanced will leakage and crosstalk between adjacent outer segments be effectively suppressed thereby ensuring the highest possible light capture efficiency by visual pigments in the outer segments whether an image is formed on the retina or not.
83Scopus© Citations 7 - PublicationRetina-simulating phantom produced by photolithographyCone photoreceptors have a narrow acceptance angle that is well matched to the size of the eye pupil and dampens the visual impact of aberrations and scattering. However, the structure of the human retina is not replicated in existing eye models used to test refractive designs or retinal implants that restore partial vision to the blind. Here, we report on an artificial waveguide-based retinal phantom manufactured by photolithography in photoresist film with dimensions and refractive index contrast similar to the retinal receptor layer. The optical performance of the waveguide array is analyzed in terms of angular coupling efficiency, and it is experimentally verified that the structure leads to improved resolution and contrast of optical images transmitted through the layer when defocus is present.
88Scopus© Citations 9