Perception of static and dynamic blur for developing clinical instrumentation in optometry and ophthalmology

Abstract

This article summarizes the studies addressed in the doctoral thesis of the author carried out at the Institute of Optics of the Spanish National Research Council (IO-CSIC) under the supervision of Dr.Carlos Dorronsoro and awarded with the 9th Justiniano Casas Award. In summary, this thesis has covered different aspects of vision related to the perception of blur, from its theoretical description to its direct clinical application. First, we studied the spatiotemporal defocus perception of the human visual system. Second,we developed and validated a new subjective refraction method for fast and accurate measurement of the refractive error of an eye based on rapid changes in defocus. Third, a new metric for selecting the best eye for monovision correction was developed, that also provides a measure of the strength of ocular dominance. Finally, a new optical illusion caused by differences in defocus between the eyes was discovered, with important clinical implications. In fact, a new optical correction was developed to compensate for the previously discovered optical illusion, the anti-Pulfrich monovision correction. The results of this thesis have advanced the understanding of defocus perception and its application to the development of clinical instrumentation in optometry and ophthalmology.