Supernormal vision and high-resolution retinal imaging through adaptive optics
01 Nov 1997-Journal of The Optical Society of America A-optics Image Science and Vision (Optical Society of America)-Vol. 14, Iss: 11, pp 2884-2892
TL;DR: A fundus camera equipped with adaptive optics is constructed that provides unprecedented resolution, allowing the imaging of microscopic structures the size of single cells in the living human retina.
Abstract: Even when corrected with the best spectacles or contact lenses, normal human eyes still suffer from monochromatic aberrations that blur vision when the pupil is large. We have successfully corrected these aberrations using adaptive optics, providing normal eyes with supernormal optical quality. Contrast sensitivity to fine spatial patterns was increased when observers viewed stimuli through adaptive optics. The eye's aberrations also limit the resolution of images of the retina, a limit that has existed since the invention of the ophthalmoscope. We have constructed a fundus camera equipped with adaptive optics that provides unprecedented resolution, allowing the imaging of microscopic structures the size of single cells in the living human retina.
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TL;DR: The first scanning laser ophthalmoscope that uses adaptive optics to measure and correct the high order aberrations of the human eye is presented, permitting axial sectioning of retinal tissue in vivo.
Abstract: We present the first scanning laser ophthalmoscope that uses adaptive optics to measure and correct the high order aberrations of the human eye. Adaptive optics increases both lateral and axial resolution, permitting axial sectioning of retinal tissue in vivo. The instrument is used to visualize photoreceptors, nerve fibers and flow of white blood cells in retinal capillaries.
933Â citations
TL;DR: Adaptive optics and retinal densitometry are combined to obtain the first images of the arrangement of S, M and L cones in the living human eye, allowing the sharpest images ever taken of the living retina.
Abstract: Human colour vision depends on three classes of receptor, the short- (S), medium- (M), and long- (L) wavelength-sensitive cones. These cone classes are interleaved in a single mosaic so that, at each point in the retina, only a single class of cone samples the retinal image. As a consequence, observers with normal trichromatic colour vision are necessarily colour blind on a local spatial scale1. The limits this places on vision depend on the relative numbers and arrangement of cones. Although the topography of human S cones is known2,3, the human L- and M-cone submosaics have resisted analysis. Adaptive optics, a technique used to overcome blur in ground-based telescopes4, can also overcome blur in the eye, allowing the sharpest images ever taken of the living retina5. Here we combine adaptive optics and retinal densitometry6 to obtain what are, to our knowledge, the first images of the arrangement of S, M and L cones in the living human eye. The proportion of L to M cones is strikingly different in two male subjects, each of whom has normal colour vision. The mosaics of both subjects have large patches in which either M or L cones are missing. This arrangement reduces the eye's ability to recover colour variations of high spatial frequency in the environment but may improve the recovery of luminance variations of high spatial frequency.
897Â citations
TL;DR: Extensions of OCT have been developed to enhance image contrast and to enable non-invasive depth-resolved functional imaging of the retina, thus providing blood flow, spectroscopic, polarization-sensitive and physiological information.
793Â citations
TL;DR: A wave-front sensor is constructed to measure the irregular as well as the classical aberrations of the eye, providing a more complete description of the Eye, indicating that they are not random defects.
Abstract: We have constructed a wave-front sensor to measure the irregular as well as the classical aberrations of the eye, providing a more complete description of the eye's aberrations than has previously been possible. We show that the wave-front sensor provides repeatable and accurate measurements of the eye's wave aberration. The modulation transfer function of the eye computed from the wave-front sensor is in fair, though not complete, agreement with that obtained under similar conditions on the same observers by use of the double-pass and the interferometric techniques. Irregular aberrations, i.e., those beyond defocus, astigmatism, coma, and spherical aberration, do not have a large effect on retinal image quality in normal eyes when the pupil is small (3 mm). However, they play a substantial role when the pupil is large (7.3-mm), reducing visual performance and the resolution of images of the living retina. Although the pattern of aberrations varies from subject to subject, aberrations, including irregular ones, are correlated in left and right eyes of the same subject, indicating that they are not random defects.
792Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a modified Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor was used to measure the monochromatic wave aberration of both eyes for 109 normal human subjects across a 5.7mm pupil.
Abstract: From both a fundamental and a clinical point of view, it is necessary to know the distribution of the eye's aberrations in the normal population and to be able to describe them as efficiently as possible. We used a modified Hartmann-Shack wave-front sensor to measure the monochromatic wave aberration of both eyes for 109 normal human subjects across a 5.7-mm pupil. We analyzed the distribution of the eye's aberrations in the population and found that most Zernike modes are relatively uncorrelated with each other across the population. A principal components analysis was applied to our wave-aberration measurements with the resulting principal components providing only a slightly more compact description of the population data than Zernike modes. This indicates that Zernike modes are efficient basis functions for describing the eye's wave aberration. Even though there appears to be a random variation in the eye's aberrations from subject to subject, many aberrations in the left eye were found to be significantly correlated with their counterparts in the right eye.
614Â citations
References
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TL;DR: The second edition of this respected text considerably expands the original and reflects the tremendous advances made in the discipline since 1968 as discussed by the authors, with a special emphasis on applications to diffraction, imaging, optical data processing, and holography.
Abstract: The second edition of this respected text considerably expands the original and reflects the tremendous advances made in the discipline since 1968. All material has been thoroughly updated and several new sections explore recent progress in important areas, such as wavelength modulation, analog information processing, and holography. Fourier analysis is a ubiquitous tool with applications in diverse areas of physics and engineering. This book explores these applications in the field of optics with a special emphasis on applications to diffraction, imaging, optical data processing, and holography. This book can be used as a textbook to satisfy the needs of several different types of courses, and it is directed toward both engineers ad physicists. By varying the emphasis on different topics and specific applications, the book can be used successfully in a wide range of basic Fourier Optics or Optical Signal Processing courses.
12,159Â citations
TL;DR: OCT as discussed by the authors uses low-coherence interferometry to produce a two-dimensional image of optical scattering from internal tissue microstructures in a way analogous to ultrasonic pulse-echo imaging.
Abstract: A technique called optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been developed for noninvasive cross-sectional imaging in biological systems. OCT uses low-coherence interferometry to produce a two-dimensional image of optical scattering from internal tissue microstructures in a way that is analogous to ultrasonic pulse-echo imaging. OCT has longitudinal and lateral spatial resolutions of a few micrometers and can detect reflected signals as small as approximately 10(-10) of the incident optical power. Tomographic imaging is demonstrated in vitro in the peripapillary area of the retina and in the coronary artery, two clinically relevant examples that are representative of transparent and turbid media, respectively.
11,568Â citations
16 Nov 1992
TL;DR: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly since its first realisation in medicine and is currently an emerging technology in the diagnosis of skin disease as mentioned in this paper, where OCT is an interferometric technique that detects reflected and backscattered light from tissue.
Abstract: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly since its first realisation in medicine and is currently an emerging technology in the diagnosis of skin disease. OCT is an interferometric technique that detects reflected and backscattered light from tissue and is often described as the optical analogue to ultrasound. The inherent safety of the technology allows for in vivo use of OCT in patients. The main strength of OCT is the depth resolution. In dermatology, most OCT research has turned on non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and non-invasive monitoring of morphological changes in a number of skin diseases based on pattern recognition, and studies have found good agreement between OCT images and histopathological architecture. OCT has shown high accuracy in distinguishing lesions from normal skin, which is of great importance in identifying tumour borders or residual neoplastic tissue after therapy. The OCT images provide an advantageous combination of resolution and penetration depth, but specific studies of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity in dermatology are sparse. In order to improve OCT image quality and expand the potential of OCT, technical developments are necessary. It is suggested that the technology will be of particular interest to the routine follow-up of patients undergoing non-invasive therapy of malignant or premalignant keratinocyte tumours. It is speculated that the continued technological development can propel the method to a greater level of dermatological use.
6,095Â citations
TL;DR: The total number of foveal cones is similar for eyes with widely varying peak cone density, consistent with the idea that the variability reflects differences in the lateral migration of photoreceptors during development.
Abstract: We have measured the spatial density of cones and rods in eight whole-mounted human retinas, obtained from seven individuals between 27 and 44 years of age, and constructed maps of photoreceptor density and between-individual variability. The average human retina contains 4.6 million cones (4.08-5.29 million). Peak foveal cone density averages 199,000 cones/mm2 and is highly variable between individuals (100,000-324,000 cones/mm2). The point of highest density may be found in an area as large as 0.032 deg2. Cone density falls steeply with increasing eccentricity and is an order of magnitude lower 1 mm away from the foveal center. Superimposed on this gradient is a streak of high cone density along the horizontal meridian. At equivalent eccentricities, cone density is 40-45% higher in nasal compared to temporal retina and slightly higher in midperipheral inferior compared to superior retina. Cone density also increases slightly in far nasal retina. The average human retina contains 92 million rods (77.9-107.3 million). In the fovea, the average horizontal diameter of the rod-free zone is 0.350 mm (1.25 degrees). Foveal rod density increases most rapidly superiorly and least rapidly nasally. The highest rod densities are located along an elliptical ring at the eccentricity of the optic disk and extending into nasal retina with the point of highest density typically in superior retina (5/6 eyes). Rod densities decrease by 15-25% where the ring crosses the horizontal meridian. Rod density declines slowly from the rod ring to the far periphery and is highest in nasal and superior retina. Individual variability in photoreceptor density differs with retinal region and is similar for both cones and rods. Variability is highest near the fovea, reaches a minimum in the midperiphery, and then increases with eccentricity to the ora serrata. The total number of foveal cones is similar for eyes with widely varying peak cone density, consistent with the idea that the variability reflects differences in the lateral migration of photoreceptors during development. Two fellow eyes had cone and rod numbers within 8% and similar but not identical photoreceptor topography.
2,471Â citations
TL;DR: An improved version of the well-known interference fringe technique which theoretically allows a sinusoidal pattern of very high contrast to be formed directly on the retina to be obtained without prior modification by the optics of the eye is reported.
Abstract: If a scene containing fine spatial detail is viewed at constant high photopic luminance, there are two main factors which limit the perception of the fine detail-the quality of the optics of the eye forming the image on the retina and the ability of the retina (coupled to the brain) to resolve the details of that image. In the past there have been many theoretical studies of the potential resolving power of the optics based on consideration of diffraction and the chromatic and spherical aberrations of the eye. It is only recently that objective measurements of the quality of the optics of man in vivo have been obtained (Flamant, 1955; Westheimer & Campbell, 1962; Krauskopf 1962; R6hler, 1962). As will be demonstrated, it is not possible to use these findings to determine the relative weighting that should be given to the optics and the retina in determining a given threshold. This paper reports the results of experiments using an improved version of the well-known interference fringe technique (Le Grand, 1937; Byram 1944; Westheimer, 1960; Arnulf & Dupuy, 1960) which theoretically allows a sinusoidal pattern of very high contrast to be formed directly on the retina. The practical difficulty in using this technique is to obtain a light source of high intrinsic brightness and coherence with which to form high-luminance interference fringes on the retina; this has been solved by using a neon-helium gas laser. By decreasing the contrast (Fig. 1) of the interference fringes with another source of light it was possible to determine the contrasts on the retina at which the fringes are just detected. Thus a measure of the resolving power of the retina-brain is obtained without prior modification by the optics of the eye. Measurements have also been made of the visual resolution of external gratings whose intensity varied sinusoidally with distance across the gratings and which were imaged on to the retina by the optical components of the eye. By comparing the threshold contrasts of these external sinusoidal gratings with thresholds for sinusoidal fringes of the same spatial frequency formed through interference, the quality of the
1,600Â citations