Wavefront sensing in Vision Science and testing hypotheses

"AO Vision Science"

Team:

Nicole Putnam (Lead), UC Berkeley, graduate student in Vision Science
Alex Castro, UC Santa Cruz, graduate student in Mathematics

Audience: 

Graduate students, postdocs, and professionals, many from astronomy and engineering fields

Venue:

CfAO Summer School 2010

Description:

This three hour lab was broken into two sections that focus on vision quality and the visual impact of low-order (a more hands-on section) and high-order (more computer-analysis based) aberrations in the eye. A goal of the activity was for students to gain familiarity with a wavefront sensing for Vision Science and all students had the opportunity to have their own eyes measured and could view or use the measurements in the second investigation. Students chose a question from a list of provided questions in each of the two focused investigation periods, forming groups based on interest with only one group per question to cover the span of content. Content goals for first investigation included understanding the effects of pupil size, accommodation, and refractive error on visual quality. In the second investigation content goals included understanding the Zernike polynomial representation of aberrations in the eye, understanding how different high-order aberrations impact visual quality, the relationship between RMS and/or radial order and visual quality, interactions of aberrations, variations in the left and right eyes, and variations between a normal population and those with diseases or those having received refractive surgery. More over-arching goals included awareness of vision science, understanding visual differences and visual impairment, and openness to inquiry and how it could be implemented in their teaching.

Sponsor:

ISEE staff consultant:

Lisa Hunter