A FOUR STAGE PHASE I EFFORT WILL BE CONDUCTED TO DEVELOP A RAPID SCREENING TECHNIQUE FOR THE DARK FOCUS, COMPARE THE DARK FOCUS WITH VISUAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY, INVESTIGATE THE UNDERLYING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DARK FOCUS AND MEASURED VISUAL CONTRAST

A FOUR STAGE PHASE I EFFORT WILL BE CONDUCTED TO DEVELOP A RAPID SCREENING TECHNIQUE FOR THE DARK FOCUS, COMPARE THE DARK FOCUS WITH VISUAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY, INVESTIGATE THE UNDERLYING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DARK FOCUS AND MEASURED VISUAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY, AND DEVELOP A PLAN TO DEVELOP OPTIMAL PILOT SELECTION ALGORITHMS FOR VISUAL CHARACTERISTICS. THE DARK FOCUS WILL BE MEASURED BY AN OPTOMETER TO BE CONSTRUCTED ACCORDING TO A DESIGN SELECTED DURING STAGE 1. CURRENT CANDIDATES ARE THE LASER OPTOMETER AND THE VERNIER OPTOMETER. DATA WILL BE COLLECTED DURING STAGE 2 FOR BOTH THE DARK FOCUS AND VISUAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY. THE ANALYSES WILL BE DIRECTED AT ELUCIDATION OF POTENTIAL VARIATIONS IN CONTRAST SENSITIVITY AS A RESULT OF PREFERRED FOCAL DISTANCE-TARGET DISTANCE MISMATCHES.