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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Maydel Fernandez-Alonso, Professor Jenny ReadORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 The AuthorsThe eye has considerable chromatic aberration, meaning that the accommodative demand varies with wavelength. Given this, how does the eye accommodate to light of differing spectral content? Previous work is not conclusive but, in general, the eye focuses in the center of the visible spectrum for broadband light, and it focuses at a distance appropriate for individual wavelengths for narrowband light. For stimuli containing two colors, there are also mixed reports. This is the second of a series of two papers where we investigate accommodation in relation to chromatic aberration Fernandez-Alonso, Finch, Love, and Read (2024). In this paper, for the first time, we measure how the eye accommodates to images containing two narrowband wavelengths, with varying relative luminance under monocular conditions. We find that the eye tends to accommodate between the two extremes, weighted by the relative luminance. At first sight, this seems reasonable, but we show that image quality would be maximized if the eye instead accommodated on the more luminous wavelength. Next we explore several hypotheses as to what signal the eye might be using to drive accommodation and compare these with the experimental data. We show that the data is best explained if the eye seeks to maximize contrast at low spatial frequencies. We consider the implication of these results for both the mechanism behind accommodation, and for modern displays containing narrowband illuminants.
Author(s): Finch AP, Fernandez-Alonso M, Kirby AK, Read JCA, Love GD
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Vision
Year: 2024
Volume: 24
Issue: 9
Pages: 1-23
Online publication date: 20/09/2024
Acceptance date: 02/04/2018
Date deposited: 01/10/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1534-7362
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.9.14
DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.9.14
PubMed id: 39302649
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