Aberrometry: the past, present and future of optometry

Abstract

Aberrometry of the human eye has progressed rapidly from research tool to clinical application. To appreciate how rapidly the field of clinical aberrometry is evolving, consider the following quotation from the editorial introduction to the 1997 Optometry and Vision Science feature issue on visual optics research:

"Contemporary visual optics research is changing our mindset, our way of thinking about the optical system of the eye, and in the process is re-defining the field of visual optics. In the past, optical imperfections of the eye were conceived as simple refractive errors - defocus, astigmatism, and perhaps a bit of prism. In the future, optical imperfections of the eye will be conceived in a comprehensive theoretical framework which expresses the combined effect of all the eye’s optical imperfections as a two-dimensional aberrations map. When treated as a mathematical function, the aberration map may be used to compute image quality on the retina for simple points of light, for clinical test targets, or any complex object in the real world. Such computations will become routine optometric tools of the future for predicting the visual benefit to the patient of a full aberration correction. The aberration map will also become a prescription for the ideal correcting optics provided by a new kind of contact lens, spectacle lens, inter-ocular lens, or by refractive surgery".

The future has arrived! In this issue of Optometry and Vision Science, readers will learn of new discoveries that expand our basic understanding of aberrometry and the optical quality of the eye.