Contrast Sensitivity of the Human Eye and Its Effects on Image Quality

232 Pages·1999·9.872 MB·English

by  Peter G. J. Barten

P.O. Box 10
Bellingham, WA 98227-0010
ISBN-10: 0819434965
ISBN-13: 9780819434968
SPIE Vol. No.: PM72
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Contrast SensitMty of the
HUMAN EYE
and lts Effects on Image Quality
Contrast SensitMty of the
HUMAN EYE
and lts Effects on lmage Quality
Peter G. ). Barten
i1
=~
SPIE ÜPTICAL ENGINEERING PRESS
A Publication of SPIE-The lntemational Society for Optical Engineering
Bellingham, Washington USA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barten, Peter G. J.
Contrast sensitivity of the human eye and its effects on image quality I Peter G. J. Barten.
p. cm.
Originally published: Knegsel: HV Press, 1999.
Thesis (doctoral)-Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8194-3496-5 (hardcover)
1. Contrast sensitivity (Vision). 2. Contrast sensitivity (Vision) - Mathematical Models.
I. Title.
QP48l.B245 1999
612.8'4-dc21 99-40877
CIP
Published by
SPIE-The Intemational Society for Optical Engineering
P.O. Box 10
Bellingham, Washington 98227-0010
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
WWW: http://www.spie.org/
Copyright © 1999 The Society ofPhoto-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
Ali rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed
in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.

to my wife Tineke,
and my children Koen, Yvonne and Marianne

Contents
Preface xüi
List of symbols
XV
I Introduction 1
References ........................... _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Modulation threshold and noise 7
2.1 Introduction .................... _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Psychometric function ............ _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Basic properties of image noise ...... _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4 Effect of noise on modulation thresho1d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.5 Summary and conclusions ......... _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
References ........................... _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Model for the spatial contrast sensitivity of the eye 27
3.1 lntroduction .................... _.................... 27
3.2 Outline of the model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3 Optical MTF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 Photon noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.5 Neural noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.6 Lateral inhibition ................ _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3. 7 Monocular vision versus binocular vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
vtn Contents
3.8 Complete model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3. 9 Comparison with measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.9.1 Measurements by DePalma and Lowry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.9.2 Measurements by Patel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.9.3 Measurements by Robson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.9.4 Measurements by van Nes and Bouman . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.9.5 Measurements by Campbell and Robson . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.9.6 Measurements by Watanabe et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.9.7 Measurements by Sachs et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.9.8 Measurements by van Meeteren and Vos. . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.9.9 Measurements by Howell and Hess ................. 51
3.9.10 Measurements by Virsu and Rovamo................ 52
3.9.11 Measurements by Carlson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.9.12 MeasurementsbyRovamoetal.(1992) ............. 55
3.9.13 MeasurementsbyRovamoetal. (1993a) ............ 56
3.9.14 MeasurementsbyRovamoetal. (1993b) ............ 57
3.9.15 Survey of the measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1 O Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Appendix A. Photon conversion factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4 Extension of the contrast sensitivity model to extra-foveal vision 67
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2 Density distribution of retinal cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.1 Geometrical relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.2 Cone density distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2.3 Rod density distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2.4 Ganglion cell density distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.3 Effect of eccentricity on the different constants used in the model 7 5