Effects of Dioptric Blur on the Vistech Contrast Sensitivity Test

Abstract

We studied the effect of dioptric blur on contrast sensitivity using the Vistech Vision Contrast System Chart. One diopter of blur affected the Vistech gratings by an amount consistent with expectations; sensitivity loss was greatest with higher spatial frequencies. However, a second diopter of blur induced an equal sensitivity loss for all spatial frequencies. A third diopter induced the greatest loss at the lowest frequency and an actual increase in sensitivity at the highest frequencies. This surprising finding is due to an interaction between "spuriously resolved" gratings and the border of the grating disc which resulted in the finest grating discs appearing to contain low frequency borders aligned with the fine gratings. Actually the fine gratings in the disc were invisible. When performing scanning photometry on the Vistech chart, we found that the contrasts of the unblurred gratings with higher contrast levels are 2.7 to 5.4 times higher than those stated by the manufacturer. The presence of this aliasing artifact indicates that the Vistech Vision Contrast System may produce erroneous results when used under conditions of high dioptric blur.