Blur Unblurred—A Mini Tutorial

Optical blur from defocus is quite frequently considered as equivalent to low-pass filtering. Yet that belief, although not entirely wrong, is inaccurate. Here, we wish to disentangle the concepts of dioptric blur, caused by myopia or mis-accommodation, from blur due to low-pass filtering when convo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hans Strasburger, Michael Bach, Sven P. Heinrich
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2018-04-01
Series:i-Perception
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669518765850
Description
Summary:Optical blur from defocus is quite frequently considered as equivalent to low-pass filtering. Yet that belief, although not entirely wrong, is inaccurate. Here, we wish to disentangle the concepts of dioptric blur, caused by myopia or mis-accommodation, from blur due to low-pass filtering when convolving with a Gaussian kernel. Perhaps surprisingly—if well known in optometry—the representation of a blur kernel (or point-spread function) for dioptric blur is, to a good approximation and disregarding diffraction, simply a cylinder. Its projection onto the retina is classically referred to as a blur circle , the diameter of which can easily be deduced from a light-ray model. We further give the derivation of the relationship between the blur-disk’s diameter and the extent of blur in diopters, as well as the diameter’s relation to the near or far point, and finally its relationship to visual acuity.
ISSN:2041-6695