Resolving power of the human visual system to monochromatic stimuli.

Abstract

The resolving power in monocular, foveal vision was found to depend on the size of a white light source made of two white rectangles separated by vertical black bar. The question arises whether the wavelength of light influences this dependence. An experiment was done on three subjects using six monochromatic lights the range 450-625 nm, and white light for control measurements. The diagram of the dependence of the minimal angle of resolution on the source size takes the shape of a biphasic curve, i.e. decreasing and constant function. The wavelength was found to have no impact on the curve shape or values. The data points obtained for white light coincide with those for monochromatic lights. The results confirm a thesis that all three colour mechanisms in the human visual system are stimulated and are active in spatial summation processes, but to a degree conditioned by a spectral sensitivity of the particular colour apparatus. It was confirmed that all colour mechanisms have potentially the same acuity but the axial chromatic aberration causes observed reduction of acuity.