No / Purpose. To determine whether gait alterations due to monocular spherical lens blur were a safety strategy or driven by lens magnification. Methods. Adaptive gait and visual function were measured in 10 older adults (mean age, 74.9 4.8 years) with the participants¿ optimal refractive correction and when monocularly blurred with 1.00 DS and 2.00 DS lens over the dominant eye. Adaptive gait measurements for the lead and trail foot included foot position before the raised surface, toe clearance of the raised surface edge, and foot position on the raised surface. Vision measurements included binocular visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereoacuity. Results. Equal levels of monocular positive and negative spherical lens blur led to very different stepping strategies when negotiating a raised surface. Positive blur lenses led to an increased vertical toe clearance and reduced distance of the lead foot position on the raised surface. Negative lenses led to the opposite of these changes. Conclusions. Findings suggest that step negotiation strategies were driven by the magnification effect provided by the spherical lenses. Steps appeared closer and larger with magnification from positive lenses and further away and smaller with minification from negative lenses and gait was adjusted accordingly. These results suggest that previously reported adaptive gait changes to monocular spherical lens blur were not safety strategies as previously suggested but driven by lens magnification. The significance of these findings in terms of prescribing large refractive changes in frail older patients is discussed.

Moving objects may stimulate many retinal photoreceptors within the integration time of the receptors without motion blur being experienced. Anderson and vanEssen (1987) suggested that the neuronal representation of retinal images is shifted on its way to the cortex, in an opposite direction to the motion. Thus, the cortical representation of objects would be stationary. I have measured thresholds for two vernier stimuli, moving simultaneously into opposite directions over identical positions. Motion blur for these stimuli is not stronger than with a single moving stimulus, and thresholds can be below a photoreceptor diameter. This result cannot be easily reconciled with the hypothesis of Tshifter circuitsU.

In this thesis work, the background of atmospheric turbulence degradation in imaging was reviewed and two aspects are highlighted: blurring and geometric distortion. The turbulence burring parameter is determined by the atmospheric turbulence condition that is often unknown; therefore, a blur identification technique was developed that is based on a higher order statistics (HOS). It was observed that the kurtosis generally increases as an image becomes blurred (smoothed). Such an observation was interpreted in the frequency domain in terms of phase correlation. Kurtosis minimization based blur identification is built upon this observation. It was shown that kurtosis minimization is effective in identifying the blurring parameter directly from the degraded image. Kurtosis minimization is a general method for blur identification. It has been tested on a variety of blurs such as Gaussian blur, out of focus blur as well as motion blur. To compensate for the geometric distortion, earlier work on the turbulent motion compensation was extended to deal with situations in which there is camera/object motion. Trajectory smoothing is used to suppress the turbulent motion while preserving the real motion. Though the scintillation effect of atmospheric turbulence is not considered separately, it can be handled the same way as multiple frame denoising while motion trajectories are built.

Falls in the elderly are a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Elderly people with visual impairment have been found to be at increased risk of falling, with poor visual acuity in one eye causing greater risk than poor binocular visual acuity. The present study investigated whether monocular refractive blur, at a level typically used for monovision correction, would significantly reduce stereoacuity and consequently affect gait parameters when negotiating a raised surface. Fourteen healthy subjects (25.8 ± 5.6 years) walked up to and on to a raised surface, under four visual conditions; binocular, +2DS blur over their non-dominant eye, +2DS blur over their dominant eye and with their dominant eye occluded. Analysis focussed on foot positioning and toe clearance parameters. Monocular blur had no effect on binocular acuity, but caused a small decline in binocular contrast sensitivity and a large decline in stereoacuity (p < 0.01). Vertical toe clearance increased under monocular blur or occlusion (p < 0.01) with a significantly greater increase under blur of the dominant eye compared with blur of the non-dominant eye (p < 0.01). Increase in toe clearance was facilitated by increasing maximum toe elevation (p < 0.01). Findings indicate that monocular blur at a level typically used for monovision correction significantly reduced stereoacuity and consequently the ability to accurately perceive the height and position of a raised surface placed within the travel path. These findings may help explain why elderly individuals with poor visual acuity in one eye have been found to have an increased risk of falling.

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No / PURPOSE. To determine the influence of refractive blur on postural stability during somatosensory and vestibular system perturbation and dual tasking. METHODS. Fifteen healthy, elderly subjects (mean age, 71 ± 5 years), who had no history of falls and had normal vision, were recruited. Postural stability during standing was assessed using a force platform, and was determined as the root mean square (RMS) of the center of pressure (COP) signal in the anterior-posterior (A-P) and medial-lateral directions collected over a 30-second period. Data were collected under normal standing conditions and with somatosensory and vestibular system perturbations. Measurements were repeated with an additional physical and/or cognitive task. Postural stability was measured under conditions of binocular refractive blur of 0, 1, 2, 4, and 8 D and with eyes closed. The data were analyzed with a population-averaged linear model. RESULTS. The greatest increases in postural instability were due to disruptions of the somatosensory and vestibular systems. Increasing refractive blur caused increasing postural instability, and its effect was greater when the input from the other sensory systems was disrupted. Performing an additional cognitive and physical task increased A-P RMS COP further. All these detrimental effects on postural stability were cumulative. CONCLUSIONS. The findings highlight the multifactorial nature of postural stability and indicate why the elderly, many of whom have poor vision and musculoskeletal and central nervous system degeneration, are at greater risk of falling. The findings also highlight that standing instability in both normal and perturbed conditions was significantly increased with refractive blur. Correcting visual impairment caused by uncorrected refractive error could be a useful intervention strategy to help prevent falls and fall-related injuries in the elderly.

The aim of the present study was to determine adaptive gait changes in long-term wearers of monovision correction contact lenses by comparing gait parameters when wearing monovision correction to those observed when wearing binocular distance correction contact lenses. Methods: Gait and toe clearance parameters were measured in eleven participants (53.5 ± 4.6 years, median monovision wearing time 5 years) as they repeatedly walked up to and onto a raised surface with either monovision or distance correction. Results: Compared to distance correction, monovision resulted in a large reduction in stereoacuity from 17¿ to 87¿, a slower walking velocity (p = 0.001), a reduced horizontal toe clearance of the step edge (p = 0.035) and, for trials when monovision correction occurred first, a 33% greater variability in vertical toe clearance (p = 0.021). Variability in some gait data was large due to certain study design features and learning effects. Conclusion: A slower walking velocity with monovision correction suggests participants became more cautious, likely as a result of the significantly reduced stereoacuity. The decreased horizontal toe clearance and increased vertical toe clearance variability suggests that monovision correction may cause a greater likelihood of hitting step edges and tripping during everyday gait. Recommended study design features are suggested for future adaptive gait studies to increase the precision of the data and to attempt to minimize the effects of learning from somatosensory feedback.

PURPOSE. To determine the influence of cataractous and refractive blur on postural stability and limb-load asymmetry (LLA) and to establish how postural stability changes with the spatial frequency and contrast of the visual stimulus. METHODS. Thirteen elderly subjects (mean age, 70.76 ± 4.14 [SD] years) with no history of falls and normal vision were recruited. Postural stability was determined as the root mean square [RMS] of the center of pressure (COP) signal in the anterior¿posterior (A-P) and medial¿lateral directions and LLA was determined as the ratio of the average body weight placed on the more-loaded limb to the less-loaded limb, recorded during a 30-second period. Data were collected under normal standing conditions and with somatosensory system input disrupted. Measurements were repeated with four visual targets with high (8 cyc/deg) or low (2 cyc/deg) spatial frequency and high (Weber contrast, ¿95%) or low (Weber contrast, ¿25%) contrast. Postural stability was measured under conditions of binocular refractive blur of 0, 1, 2, 4, and 8 D and with cataract simulation. The data were analyzed in a population-averaged linear model. RESULTS. The cataract simulation caused significant increases in postural instability equivalent to that caused by 8-D blur conditions, and its effect was greater when the input from the somatosensory system was disrupted. High spatial frequency targets increased postural instability. Refractive blur, cataract simulation, or eye closure had no effect on LLA. CONCLUSIONS. Findings indicate that cataractous and refractive blur increase postural instability, and show why the elderly, many of whom have poor vision along with musculoskeletal and central nervous system degeneration, are at greater risk of falling. Findings also highlight that changes in contrast sensitivity rather than resolution changes are responsible for increasing postural instability. Providing low spatial frequency information in certain environments may be useful in maintaining postural stability. Correcting visual impairment caused by uncorrected refractive error and cataracts could be a useful intervention strategy to help prevent falls and fall-related injuries in the elderly.

The effect of refractive blur upon postural stability was investigated under three conditions: normal standing, standing with input from the somatosensory system disrupted and standing with input from the somatosensory and vestibular systems disrupted. Standing stability was assessed using the centre of pressure (COP) signal from force plate data in four young subjects (mean 23.9 ± 3.1 years) and five repeated sets of measurements were taken. The subjects looked straight ahead at a horizontal and vertical square wave pattern of 2.5 cycles (degree)¿1. Under each of the three test conditions, standing stability was measured with the optimal refractive correction and under binocular blur levels of 0, + 1, + 2, + 4, and + 8 D and with eyes closed. In the normal standing condition, dioptric blur had only a mild effect on postural stability. However refractive blur produced large increases in postural instability when input from one or both of the other two sensory systems were disrupted. We hypothesized that dioptric blur would have an even great effect on postural stability if the visual target used was of higher spatial frequency. This was confirmed by repeated measurements on one subject using a target of 8 cycles (degree)¿1. The study highlights the possible importance of an optimal correction to postural stability, particular in situations (or people) where input from the somatosensory and/or vestibular systems are disrupted, and where the visual surrounds are of high spatial frequency.