RESEARCH RELATED TO DEVELOPING A VISUAL TESTING DEVICE

QUALITATIVE ADVANCES IN COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY HAVE LEVELED OFF SUFFICIENTLY TO JUSTIFY THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-USER, MULTI-FUNCTION, COMPREHENSIVE VISUAL TESTING INSTRUMENT FOR OPHTHALMOLOGISTS, VISUAL SCIENTISTS, AND OPTOMETRISTS. SUCH A SYSTEM COULD BE DEVELOPED WITH RELATIVE EASE WERE IT NOT FOR THE INDUSTRY STANDARD REFRESH RATE FOR GENERATING VIDEO IMAGES. UNFORTUNATELY, 60 HZ IS TOO SLOW FOR CREATING THE VISUAL STIMULI NEEDED TO ASSESS TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF VISION. WE BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE COST-EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES TO THE MORE OBVIOUS SOLUTIONS THAT INVOLVE MODIFYING OR REDESIGNING HARDWARE. THEY ENTAIL GENERATING IMAGES THAT CONTAIN FEWER LINES, BUT THAT ARE PAINTED AT A FASTER RATE. THIS SOLUTION, HOWEVER, BEGS THE EMPIRICAL QUESTION OF HOW A SACRIFICE OF VERTICAL RESOLUTION IN A STIMULUS IMAGE WILL INFLUENCE VISUAL PERFORMANCE. THEREFORE, IT IS PROPOSED TO CONDUCT THE RESEARCH THAT WILL PROVIDE THE DATA RELEVANT TO ANSWERING THIS QUESTION. SPECIFICALLY, THE INFLUENCE OF THE NUMBER OF STIMULI PRESENTED AT ONE TIME (I.E., STIMULUS UNCERTAINTY) AND THE DENSITY OF LIT PIXELS PER UNIT AREA OF A STIMULUS IMAGE (I.E., SPATIAL SUMMATION) ON A TEMPORAL RESOLUTION TASK KNOWN AS MULTI-FLASH CAMPIMETRY (BRUSSELL ET AL., CURRENT EYE RESEARCH, 1981/82) WILL BE INVESTIGATED.