Analyzing the dynamic wavefront aberrations in the human eye.

Abstract

The optics of the human eye are not static in steady viewing conditions and exhibit microfluctuations. Previous methods used for analyzing dynamic changes in the eye's optics include simple Fourier-transform-based methods, which have been used in studies of the eye's accommodation response. However, dedicated tools for the analysis of dynamic wavefront aberrations have not been reported. We propose a set of signal processing tools, the combination of which uncovers aspects of the dynamics of eye's optical aberrations which were hidden from conventional analysis techniques. The methodology includes extraction of artifacts from potentially significant eye movements, filtering, optimal parametric signal modeling, and frequency and time-frequency representations. The exposition of the techniques and their advantages over traditional techniques is illustrated for real dynamic eye wavefront aberration measurements.