Brief Description:
A system to overcome limitations in lateral resolution found in popular wavefront sensors.
Applications:
This invention identifies the current Shack-Hartmann type ocular wavefront sensors and proposes a design to combat the model’s limited lateral resolution. The proposed invention is to measure the point spread function of the eye by creating a tiny point source on the retina using adaptive optics.
Advantages:
The ability to measure precisely the lower and higher order wave aberrations using ocular wavefront sensing techniques has given researchers the means to understand more accurately the optical quality of the eye. The Shack-Hartmann type ocular wavefront sensors have been the most popular in the field of ophthalmology and vision science. However, this type of sensor poses two major concerns: it requires a lenslet array to sample wavefront which limits its lateral resolution, and since each lenslet averages a distorted wavefront within the lenslet, its highest measurable spatial frequency is limited to the size of the lenslet. These limitations create serious issues in some applications like tear film dynamics (dry eye) and the magnitude of scatter (cataract), for in these applications it is important to measure very high spatial frequency wavefronts to assess accurately optical qualities of the eye. To resolve these issues, this invention is designed to measure the point spread function of the eye by creating a tiny point source on the retina using adaptive optics. Reliable measurements of the ocular wave aberration make it possible to correct these aberrations to improve visual performance using advanced methods such as adaptive optics, laser refractive surgery, and customized optics.