Resolution and acuity Flashcards
define spatial acuity
the smallest spatial detail that can be detected, resolved or identified
what is spatial acuity different from and how
different from temporal acuity which changes over time
how significant is the measure of spatial acuity
one of the most common and important of psychophysical measures of the visual system
list and describe the 4 types of spatial acuity
- detection acuity: diameter of the smallest spot or width of the smallest line that can just be seen
- hyperacuity: smallest spatial offset or difference in location that can be resolved. aka, localisation acuity and vernier acuity
- resolution acuity: smallest angular separation of two points or lines that can be discriminated as two
- identification/letter acuity: identify letters or other optotypes by resolving their details
requires form vision and acuity
define detection acuity
angular size of the smallest spot or width of line that can just be detected
what type of psychophysical procedure is detection acuity carried out as
a 2AFC, is it there or isn’t it? test
what is detection acuity dependent on for small objects
detection is dependent on illuminance of the retinal image and not the size
i.e. how bright the dot is on the retinal image compared to the background, if it is not bright enough then it won’t reach threshold to allow us to see
what do you need a certain amount of, for detection acuity
a certain amount of contrast
what is detection acuity as way of measuring
a way of measuring weber’s contrast
what is the equation of weber’s contrast (for detection acuity)
difference in luminance/luminance background
what is retinal image size limited by for small objects
diffraction and aberration, so can fall below this limit however small the object, as it is limited by pupil size
how can you calculate retinal image size
using nodal points, since the angle in = the angle out in the human eye
N’F’ = 16.67mm
if you convert the angle subtended by something as far away as a star to radians, which = 1.57x10-8, the size of this on the retina = 2.6x10-4 microns, this is 10x smaller than a cone diameter, so is a very small retinal image size
what can an image size never be below due to diffraction and what does this indicate
image size can never be below 2.72 microns
so to see something small, it depends on how much light it produces and how much light that ends up in this diffracted image compared to the background and whether it reaches enough threshold for us to see
what is increment threshold ΔL
the ability to detect if one stimulus intensity differs from another
with which optometric test carried out in practise, is the principle of increment threshold used ΔL
when measuring visual fields, which shows that weber’s law depends on stimulus size, duration, wavelength and retinal location
describe 3 different types of targets that can be used to measure increment threshold ΔL, i.e. to see if one differs from the other
- annulus = rings
- bipart = fields split L and R
- two separate targets
what does deVries - rose law show about webers fraction ΔL/L against background luminance (brightness)
the performance is constant over a range of background luminances and then it starts to fall down to the end and this is where the constant = weber’s law ΔL/L
weber’s law says here under optimum conditions ~2% is right for the ratio ΔL/L and we will be able to detect the difference at moderate photopic levels, so weber’s contrast is more relevant to targets against a larger background
at what value does the weber-fechner fraction ΔL/L reach a minimum value at photopic levels and what is this known as
minimum value of 2% at photopic levels
this constant is known as weber’s law
what is the smallest size spot we are able to detect
0.25-0.33’ arc
what is the smallest size line we are able to detect
0.0083-0.017’ arc
why do we do better at detecting lines that we do with spots as shown by detection acuity results
because of the increased/better spatial contrast, there is summation along the length of a line.
our neural systems tends to integrate the information along the length of a line i.e. the contrast difference, and so we do better with lines as looks at performance along a whole line than just a spot