Paper
1 January 1987 Macroscopic Response Of The Retinal Mosaic To The Light Stimulus: Linear Array Model
P. K. Mondal, M. L. Calvo
Author Affiliations +
Proceedings Volume 0813, Optics and the Information Age; (1987) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.967133
Event: 14th Congress of the International Commission for Optics, 1987, Quebec, Canada
Abstract
It is known that the cones and rods of the retina have directional sensitivity. For a normal observer, in the absence of aberrations like myopia, astigmatism, etc. the light entering the pupil of the eye is directly focussed on the retinal plane by the optical system of the eye. There, in the retina, the cones and the rods are regularly distributed in different retinal regions forming a mosaic structure. It is very well established from the earlier works of Enoch, (1), that both types of optical photoreceptors act as optical waveguides. This behaviour can be accounted for due to their special optical properties allowing conditions for total internal reflections inside its structure. At the time of the confinement of the energy inside each single receptor an important phenomenon of orientation takes place as well. In this work, we wish to establish that the various effects arising out of this phenomenon can be interpreted in terms of a possible apodising action of the eye.It will be shown that an improvement in the resolution of the retinal image detection is possible by comparing the human visual system with an apodised optical system. For that purpose we have established a linear array model for a section of the fovea, ( all receptors having the same geometry and optical properties ), then, we have calculated the distribution of the density of energy captured in this particular section of the retina, by assuming that the receptors are acting as monomode optical waveguides.The orientation mechanism is also considered, by including an inclination factor affecting each single receptor. We have compared the so obtained distribution to the one associated to a single receptor
© (1987) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
P. K. Mondal and M. L. Calvo "Macroscopic Response Of The Retinal Mosaic To The Light Stimulus: Linear Array Model", Proc. SPIE 0813, Optics and the Information Age, (1 January 1987); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.967133
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KEYWORDS
Receptors

Eye

Retina

Cones

Waveguides

Eye models

Optical properties

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