Adaptive optics, wavefront aberrations and visual simulation

Resumen

The adaptive optics (AO) developed rapidly in order to correct the aberrations of optical systems. The eye as optical system has aberrations that play an important role in the degradation of retinal image quality. Therefore, within the field of visual optics, AO has many applications such an improvement of the resolution of recorded images of the retina in vivo, extending the information available from it. Other application is vision correction; with conventional corrective methods (such as spectacles and contact lenses (CL)) we can only correct the lower order aberrations. However, with AO system we can also correct the higher order aberrations (HOAs), obtaining a better visual function, especially in highly distorted corneas (like keratoconus, post-refractive surgery, etc) that present large amounts of HOAs. In recent years, one of the newest applications of the AO is visual simulation; the first AO system visual simulator is the CRX1 (Imagine Eyes, France). The key features of the crx1 include: measurement, correction and manipulation of optical aberrations of the eyes. So that with this technology we can perform new experiments to better understand the process of vision, producing controlled wave aberrations patterns in the eye and then evaluating the visual function by test of VA and CS. Indeed, it allows to predict visual benefits of invasive surgical procedures.