Optical interaction effects in models of parts of the visual receptors.

Abstract

Introduction On the basis of the physical characteristics of the visual receptor cells, it can be anticipated that the transmission of light in one visual cell will be influenced by the presence of neighboring visual cells. It is the purpose of this paper to attempt to determine a first estimate of the significance of these optical interaction * effects upon vision. When the surfaces of two light conducting fibers (such as two inner segments of retinal receptors) approach to within two wave-lengths (of the energy they are conducting) of each other, or less, light leaks from one fiber to the other. For the purposes of this paper this phenomenon is known as optical interaction. This effect tends to reduce contrast and resolution in the image.† Because of the small size of the visual receptors, it becomes advisable to resort to models in order to study these phenomena. An effort will be