title: Blur limits for defocus, astigmatism and trefoil.
abstract: We investigated the limits at which blur due to defocus, crossed-cylinder astigmatism, and trefoil became noticeable, troublesome or objectionable. Black letter targets (0.1, 0.35 and 0.6 logMAR) were presented on white backgrounds. Subjects were cyclopleged and had effectively 5mm pupils. Blur was induced with a deformable, adaptive-optics mirror operating under open-loop conditions. Mean defocus blur limits of six subjects with uncorrected intrinsic higher-order ocular aberrations ranged from 0.18+/-0.08 D (noticeable blur criterion, 0.1 logMAR) to 1.01+/-0.27 D (objectionable blur criterion, 0.6 logMAR). Crossed-cylinder astigmatic blur limits were approximately 90% of those for defocus, but with considerable meridional influences. In two of the subjects, the intrinsic aberrations of the eye were subsequently corrected before the defocus and astigmatic blur were added. This resulted in only minor reductions in their blur limits. When assessed with trefoil blur and corrected intrinsic ocular aberrations, the ratio of objectionable to noticeable blur limits in these two subjects was much higher for trefoil (3.5) than for defocus (2.5) and astigmatism (2.2).
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, 60 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, Qld 4059, Australia. d.atchison@qut.edu.au
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Atchison
authors.forename: Huanqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: W N
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Charman
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D000065:Accommodation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001251:Astigmatism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002138:Calibration; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult