Optometry Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Optometry, including details on myopia, optometric practice, therapy.

Depth-of-focus of the human eye: theory and clinical implications.

Wang B, Ciuffreda KJ

Department of Vision Sciences, SUNY/State College of Optometry, 33West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036, USA.

The depth-of-focus, or the perceptual tolerance of the human eye to retinal defocus, is important to and imbedded in many aspects of clinical refraction and physiological optics. Although the depth-of-focus is a common concept in classical optics, there is relatively little detailed discussion of its implications as related to normal vision function and to vision anomalies. With current advances in refractive surgery and ophthalmic lens design, the demand for knowledge in this topic is both timely and important. This review of our current understanding of the depth-of-focus should prove to be useful to clinicians, researchers, and students as an introduction to the subject. Two areas will be considered: 1) basic definitions of and factors affecting the depth-of-focus, and 2) its contemporary clinical implications.

Published 17 January 2006 in Surv Ophthalmol, 51(1): 75-85.
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