Publicado em: 19/07/2012

Tese de Doutorado em Processamento Gráfico

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL
INSTITUTO DE INFORMÁTICA
PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM COMPUTAÇÃO
———————————————-
DEFESA DE TESE DE DOUTORADO

Aluno: Vitor Fernando Pamplona
Orientador: Prof. Dr. Manuel Menezes de Oliveira Neto

Título: Interactive Measurements and Tailored Displays for Optical Aberrations of the Human Eye
Linha de Pesquisa: Processamento Gráfico

Data: 27/07/2012
Horário: 14h
Local: Auditório José Mauro Volkmer de Castilho, Prédio 43424 – Instituto de Informática

Banca Examinadora:
Prof. Dr. Luis Alberto Vieira de Carvalho (USP-SC)
Prof. Dr. Marcelo Walter (UFRGS)
Prof. Dr. Paulo Schor (UNIFESP)

Presidente da Banca: Prof. Dr. Manuel Menezes de Oliveira Neto

Abstract:
This thesis proposes light-field pre-warping methods for measuring and compensating for optical aberrations in focal imaging systems. Interactive methods estimate refractive conditions (NETRA) and model lens opacities (CATRA) of interaction-aware eyes and cameras using cost-efficient hardware apps for high-resolution screens. Tailored displays use stereo-viewing hardware to compensate for the measured visual aberrations. Optical widgets carefully designed to interactive interfaces plus computational analysis and reconstruction establish computational diagnostics. The overall goal is to allow a general audience to operate a portable light-field display to gain a meaningful understanding of their own visual conditions. Ubiquitous, fresh, and accurate diagnostic records can make displays go beyond the individual’s visual acuity, presenting in-focus information without the need of corrective eyeglasses. A light-field display, positioned very close to the eye, creates virtual objects in pre-defined depths through different sectors of the eye’s aperture. This platform creates a new range of interactivity that is extremely sensitive to spatially-distributed optical aberrations. The ability to focus on virtual objects, interactively align displayed patterns, and detect variations in shape and brightness allows the estimation of the eye’s point spread function and its lens ‘ accommodation range. While conventional systems require specialized training, costly devices, strict security procedures, and are usually not mobile, this thesis simplifies the mechanism by putting the human subject in the loop. Captured data is transformed into refractive conditions in terms of spherical and cylindrical powers, axis of astigmatism, focal range and aperture maps for opacity, attenuation, contrast and sub-aperture point-spread functions. With the information about the viewer’s eye, a new display technology is able to compensate for refractive errors and avoid light-scattering paths. The tailored display enhances visual acuity by creating several image planes conjugated with the retina. This new display frees the viewer from needing wearable optical corrections when looking at it, expanding the notion of glasses-free multi-focus displays to add individual variabilities. This thesis includes proof-of-concept designs for computational diagnostics and tailored displays. User evaluations and validations with modified camera optics are performed. Capturing the daily variabilities of an individual’s sensory system is expected to unleash a new era of high-quality tailored consumer devices.

Keywords: Computational diagnostics, tailored displays, hardware apps, mobile mates, light-field displays, interactive diagnostics, visual optics, refractive errors, cataracts.