Scribd
Upload
73 views3 pages

Vision and Image Quality

Automotive standards

Uploaded by

mpnahar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
73 views3 pages

Vision and Image Quality

Automotive standards

Uploaded by

mpnahar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

VIEWPOINT:

Human Vision and Image Quality

Variation in visual acuity between individuals


Visual acuity has many components, the two most obvious being (a) the ability of the eye optics
to focus light onto the retina without aberration, and (b) the ability of photo receptors in the
retina to resolve fine features.
This document presents some interesting graphs that address the first issue, namely the optical
performance of the eye, independent of the retina. The plots are from Volume 1 of the OSA
Handbook of Optics.
While the graphs are interesting in themselves, I included them to illustrate these takeaway
points:
At pupil diameters between 2 and 3 mm, the optical system of the eye is close to
diffraction limited, with resolving power well beyond the 20:20 threshold of 30 cycles
per degree.
Since most people can barely manage 30 cycles per degree, the resolution of the retina
is clearly also a limiting factor.
At larger pupil diameters the resolving power of the eye actually decreases.
There is a great deal of variation between individuals.


Figures from: OSA Handbook of Optics, Vol.1

2012 Well Research, Inc. | 15 A Lewis Street, Lincoln MA 01773 USA | (p) 781.259.8667 | www.wellsresearch.com Page 1

VIEWPOINT:
Human Vision and Image Quality

Variation in pupil diameter


The information in this section comes from the University of Pennsylvania, to illustrate these
key points:
Pupil diameter varies with lighting level
In a well-lit office environment of ~ 80 cd/M2 the nominal pupil diameter is ~ 2.5 mm
Different studies have yielded different relationships between luminance and pupil
diameter.
This is a reminder that the 2.5 mm value is simply a rule of thumb.
The pupil is the "hole" in the iris that allows light into the eye.
It changes size in response to ambient light level and other things.
Pupil reflex appears to be triggered by a mixed cone and rod stimulation.
(Alpern and Campbell '62)
The pupil horizontal diameter ranges from about 2 mm to about 8 mm.
Some empirical equations describing retina size as a function of light level are:
Moon and Spencer (1944): diameter = 4.9 - 3tanh[.4(log L + 1.0)]
DeGroot and Gebgard (1952): diameter = 10^(.8558 - .000401(log(L) + 8.6)^3)


Source: http://retina.anatomy.upenn.edu/~lance/eye/pupil.html

2012 Well Research, Inc. | 15 A Lewis Street, Lincoln MA 01773 USA | (p) 781.259.8667 | www.wellsresearch.com Page 2

VIEWPOINT:
Human Vision and Image Quality

MTF and human visual acuity



The plot below was constructed in the lens analysis program Zemax, and shows the MTF plot
for a theoretically perfect optical system with an entrance aperture of 2.5 mm.

B C

Key to captions:

[A] MTF curve for diffraction limited system with pupil diameter of 2.5 mm
[B] According to Dr. Ed Granger's SQF metric1, the range of frequencies from 3 to 12 line-pairs per
degree is all that really matters when the eye evaluates image quality.

While higher frequencies obviously are not completely irrelevant, Grainger's SQF metric does
correlate well with perceived image quality.

[C] 30 line-pairs per degree corresponds to 20/20 vision.



1
Information on the SQF metric may be found at: proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1236329

2012 Well Research, Inc. | 15 A Lewis Street, Lincoln MA 01773 USA | (p) 781.259.8667 | www.wellsresearch.com Page 3

You might also like