Physiological Optics of the Eye for Engineers

Level: Introductory Length: 7 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: Optical engineers, designers, managers, graduate students, and people interested in the visual system in general. Some knowledge of geometric optics is required. However, no knowledge of anatomy or physiology is necessary. The necessary biological aspects will be included in the course. Description: Given the prevalence and potential impact of visual displays, head mounted, virtual reality and assisted reality devices, it is important for the optical engineer working in these areas to know about how the human eye works and how auxiliary devices can be interfaced to the eye. Devices vary by their relationship to the user’s eyes. Various visual factors, both perceptual and optical, will have to be taken into account. These factors include accommodation, aging, color, contrast, eye relief distance, field of view, flicker, glare, resolution, stereopsis, motion and aberrations of the eye. Design of such optical systems requires knowledge of the metrics of visual performance in spatial, temporal and color domains. These factors are important when selecting head-mounted displays for specific applications. These optical and human factors performance metrics constrain the design and use of such devices. I will describe and discuss these various factors. Learning Outcomes: This course will enable you to: - explain the visual system and identify various factors that influence vision - describe the dioptrics of the eye and schematic eye models - list various parameters of the visual system of interest to the opticist - describe various metrics such as contrast sensitivity function, flicker sensitivity function, the V-Lambda curve and spectral sensitivity, color vision, accommodation, etc. - explain the human factors involved in the design and use of these technologies - explain various aspects of visual performance and combine these various performance metrics to formulate a global model of vision - compare various display, HMD, VR and AR devices in terms of their capability for working with the human visual system Instructor(s): Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan is currently a professor of vision science, Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Primarily a theorist, he is a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, AAAS, APS, IoP, etc. and the recipient of a number of awards including the Optics Educator award of SPIE (2011). He has authored and edited 13 books and over 300 publications in topics ranging from optical physics and engineering, neuroscience, bioengineering, applied math and ophthalmology/ optometry. Event: SPIE Photonics West 2019 Course Held: 04 February 2019