19/1/2015

Author: Juan F. Zapata-Díaz, University of Manchester

Empirical eye models have been widely used to further understand the optical mechanisms of the eye. Current non-paraxial eye models take into account surfaces asphericity and changes during accommodation and age and include a GRIN lens. However, none of them include the pupil-related changes during accommodation and age, which may be an important parameter in a non-paraxial eye model.

A new eye model based on “in vivo” measurements was presented at the last Visual and Physiological Optics conference (VPO2014) in Wroclaw (Poland). This model includes the effect of accommodation and age on all optical parameters, including pupil size. The model is able to simulate the eye wavefront and to predict changes in refraction, accommodation response, and spherical aberration with accommodation and age. This makes the model a good tool to design and test new approaches to correct visual dysfunctions and to study optical factors influencing some of the eye features such as depth-of-focus.

Figure 1. Three-dimensional representation of the proposed eye model for an unaccommodated state and for a 35-years-old case.