Physics 1230: Light and Color

Chapter 5
• Chapter 5: • The eyeball is a kind of
The Human Eye and camera but
– Two lenses (cornea and eyelens)
Vision - I: Producing
– Focusing by accomodation
the Image
– Iris instead of diaphragm
• Using what we have • Pupil is the adjustable hole
learned about lenses – Interior filled with liquids
and cameras to (humors)
understand how the – Retina instead of CCD
eye works • Fovea, optic nerve & blind spot
• Photoreceptors: rods and cones
• Dark adaptation
• Image processing (Ch. 7)
1
 Parts of the eye and the iris
• Iris acts like diaphragm in
camera
– Aperture of iris is called the pupil
– Iris and pupil are alive
– Irises are as different as
fingerprints
• Iris scans can be used for
identification (e.g., airport)
• Your iris widens when the light goes
down and narrows when the light is
bright (video camera demo)
– The f-stop of the fully-opened iris is
between f/2 and f/3
– Stopped down, it can reduce light
intensity by up to a factor of 20
• However, the main function of the iris
is not to control the intensity of light
coming into your eye
– The range of light intensities to which
eye responds varies by 1013
• Main functions of iris
– Reduce aberrations, sharpen image.
– Increase depth of field (e.g. threading
needle)
Parts of the human eye
 How and where is the image
produced in your eye?
• Dual (compound) lens system Cornea does most of ray bending
– Cornea (on outside) does
most of the ray bending Retina
because speed of light is
slow inside cornea.
– Eyelens does fine tuning:
F1 F1'
• speed of light inside eyelens
is not much larger than in
Final
humors which fill the inside
of the eyeball image
is on
• Hence, not much ray-
bending is done by the retina
eyelens (it has a long,
adjustable focal length) Eyelens behind cornea does fine-tuning;
– The image is focused on focuses by changing its (long) focal length
your retina
– We'll use an equivalent
single lens in examples
 The eye focuses in a different
manner from the camera
• A camera is focused by
changing the distance, xi,
from the lens to the image
at the back on the film or
CCD as the distance to the
object changes.
• A camera focuses on an
object any distance xo from
the lens (of fixed focal
length) by changing xi so
that xi is a solution to the
lens equation
• 1/f = 1/xo + 1/xi
changes as xo changes
fixed number
varies
• The eyelens is a fixed,
unchanging distance, xi, from
the retina at the back of the
eyeball where the image is
created
• As the object distance, xo,
changes, focus is achieved by
the eyelens changing its focal
length, f, so that f is a solution to
the lens equation
• This method of focusing is
called accomodation
• 1/f = 1/xo + 1/xi
varies fixed number
Accommodation is achieved by the eyelens' ability
to change its focal length by changing its bulge

– Eyelens shape is changed by

ligaments. This changes its
focal length
• Less bulge means less bending large f
power and longer focal length
• More bulge means more
bending power and shorter
focal length
• Demonstration
smaller f
 How and why your eyelens accommodates to put
images in focus

• Your eyelens has a small • Note that you cannot see

depth of field both me and your thumb
– You can't see something sharply (in focus) at the
close and far with both same time
objects in focus at the same
time – You focus on one or the
other by changing the bulge
• Hold out your thumb about of your eyelens
15" just below me
• How do you focus?
– Then, alternately focus on
thumb and me (right above
your thumb)
– Do you feel your eyelens
changing its bulge?
 What does accommodation of the eye have to do with
looking at me or your thumb? How does it work?
(Lens represents combined cornea-eyelens system)
Thumb is out of focus

Focusing your eye on a nearby

thumb requires shorter focal length
(more bulgy) eyelens than focusing large f
on the Prof far away, since rays must
be bent more for image to fall on Prof. is in focus
retina.
Thumb is in focus

smaller f

Prof is out of focus

Human Eye: Review of what we
learned about the Human Eye
Try in home
When we are looking at objects, the
image is formed
 The retina is where the image falls at the
back of your eyeball
• Image falls on retina instead of
CCD.
• Rods & cones packed into retina.
– Sensitive to light like camera film
• Optic nerve
– Nerve fibers connect rods & cones to
brain. (transform light into electrical
signals)
– Blind spot is where optic
nerve leaves eyeball. Demo.
• How are rods and cones distributed in
the retina? Fig. 5.12
– The fovea is the small region near the
center of the retina
• Used for sharp, detailed viewing.
• Has the most cones (precise, color vision)
• Has no rods (used for low light, less
precise viewing).
– Looking at someone means their image is
on your fovea
• If their image is not on your fovea you see
them "out of the corner of your eye."
• Eyeball moves to see a sharp image
– It scans to make all parts of an image
eventually fall on your fovea
There are no light detecting rods and cones where the optic nerve
leaves the eye. This is called the blind spot.
 Adaptation of the rods and cones to
the dark: darkness adapation
• The retina is able to change its
sensitivity to light as the light
intensity varies by a factor up to
1013.
– This is similar to a camera (but the
range is enormous)
• After you walk into a dark movie
theater your eyes gradually "adjust"
to the darkness because your rods
and cones can detect lower and
lower intensities as time goes on!
– At any given time the minimum
light intensity you can just barely
see (called your detection
threshold) gets lower and lower
• How does the lowering of your
detection threshold work?
– When you are outside the theater you
don't need to see very low light levels.
Your detection threshold is high
• Outside in the sun you are mainly seeing
by using your cones.
• They enable you to see in full color.
• This is called photoptic vision
– After you enter the theater your
detection threshold gradually goes down
• After about 7 minutes you can no longer
see with your cones
• You switch to rods, which are more
sensitive
• Your rods don't allow you to see colors
• This is called scotopic vision
• Your rod sensitivity continues to improve
in the dark for another 25 minutes
(detection threshold goes down)