Testing impacts of global blur profiles using a multiscale vision simulator

Abstract Although it is possible to specify the impact of blur at a specific retinal location, a lack of understanding exists regarding how the inhomogeneous blur distribution across the retina (i.e., global blur) affects the quality of an optical correction at a specific retinal location. To elucidate this issue, a multiscale visual simulator combining the projection of a controllable high-resolution stimulus and an ocular monitoring system was constructed to simultaneously simulate foveal and extrafoveal blurs. To define the range and capability of a wide-angle stimulation, an optimal working pupil was evaluated by optical ray-tracing via a Monte Carlo simulation, including optical variations corresponding to fixational eye movements. To investigate the impacts of global blur on the perception of discrete regions of the visual field, the bothersome blur threshold from five subjects was measured through this novel system using a collection of zonal blurs (annuli image projected sequentially at discrete retinal regions), and these impacts were compared with those using a spatially-varying blur (continuum of simultaneously projected zonal blurs of varying strengths, simulating retinal blur variations). Our results show that the zonal blur threshold does not entirely predict the global blur threshold, having a tendency to overestimate blur the threshold. It was concluded that, in addition to the amount of defocus present at a defined retinal location, the perception of individual defocused retinal regions can be affected by global blur. Given that blur tolerance can affect the perception of optically induced blurs, the findings provide useful implications for designing new optical correction.