Focusing on mixed narrow band stimuli: Implications for mechanisms of accommodation and displays

Finch, Abigail P.; Fernandez-Alonso, Maydel; Kirby, Andrew K.; Read, Jenny C. A.; Love, Gordon D.

Abstract

The 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.

Citation

Finch, A. P., Fernandez-Alonso, M., Kirby, A. K., Read, J. C. A., & Love, G. D. (2024). Focusing on mixed narrow band stimuli: Implications for mechanisms of accommodation and displays. Journal of Vision, 24(9), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.9.14

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 20, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Sep 20, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-09
• Deposit Date: Nov 12, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 12, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Vision
• Electronic ISSN: 1534-7362
• Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: 14
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.9.14
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3092593