Multi-channel subjective refractor

1 . A method of operating a multi-channel subjective refractor, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a first image with a first refraction and a second image with a second refraction with the multi-channel subjective refractor;

presenting the first image with the first refraction and the second image with the second refraction simultaneously for an eye of a patient by the multi-channel subjective refractor; and

prompting the patient to identify the sharper of the first image and the second image, the generating comprising:

generating the first image with a first display; generating the second image with a second display; refracting the first image by a first channel with a first channel refraction; refracting the second image by a second channel with a second channel refraction; receiving and combining the first image and the second image by a beam combiner; receiving the first image and the second image from the beam combiner by a shared channel; refracting, by a combination of the shared channel with the first channel, the first image with the first refraction; and refracting, by a combination of the shared channel with the second channel, the second image with the second refraction, wherein: the first channel refraction comprises at least one of a first channel defocus and a first channel cylinder; the second channel refraction comprises at least one of a second channel defocus and a second channel cylinder; the first refraction comprises at least one of a first defocus and a first cylinder; and the second refraction comprises at least one of a second defocus and a second cylinder.

2 . The method of claim 1 , the generating comprising:

refracting the first image by the first channel with the first defocus and the first cylinder; and

refracting the second image by the second channel with the second defocus and the second cylinder;

without refracting the first image and the second image by the shared channel.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the first channel comprises

at least one of a first movable lens, a first variable power lens, a first deformable mirror, a first phase modulator, and a first translational stage to move the first display, to refract the first image with the first defocus; and

a first stokes lens, to refract the first image with the first cylinder; and

the second channel comprises

at least one of a second movable lens, a second variable power lens, a second deformable mirror, a second phase modulator, and a second translational stage to move the second display, to refract the second image with the second defocus; and

a second stokes lens, to refract the second image with the second cylinder.

4 . The method of claim 1 , the generating comprising:

refracting the first image and the second image by the shared channel with a shared refraction that includes at least one of a shared defocus and a shared cylinder; wherein

the shared channel comprises at least one of

a shared movable lens, a shared variable power lens, a shared deformable mirror, or a shared phase modulator, to refract the first image and the second image with the shared defocus; and

a shared stokes lens, to refract the first image and the second image with the shared cylinder.

5 . The method of claim 4 , the generating comprising:

refracting the first image by the first channel with the first channel defocus that combines with the shared defocus to create the first defocus, wherein the first channel comprises at least one of a first movable lens, a first variable power lens, a first deformable mirror, a first phase modulator, or a first translational stage to move the first display; and

refracting the first image by the first channel with the first channel cylinder that combines with the shared cylinder to create the first cylinder using a first stokes lens; or

refracting the second image by the second channel with the second channel defocus that combines with the shared defocus to create the second defocus, wherein the second channel comprises at least one of a second movable lens, a second variable power lens, a second deformable mirror, a second phase modulator, or a second translational stage to move the second display; and

refracting the second image by the second channel with the second channel cylinder that combines with the shared cylinder to create the second cylinder, using a second stokes lens.

6 . The method of claim 1 , the presenting comprising:

presenting the first image with the first refraction and the second image with the second refraction simultaneously in one of an up-down image pair, a side-by-side image pair, and an image pair.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a patient input from the patient in response to the prompting via a user interface; and

changing at least one of the first refraction and the second refraction in response to the patient input via a multi-channel subjective refractor controller.

8 . The method of claim 7 , the receiving comprising:

receiving the patient input via the user interface,

directly from the patient, or

indirectly by the patient conveying the input to a medical professional for entering it into the user interface.

9 . The method of claim 7 , the changing comprising:

generating a refraction change signal by the multi-channel subjective refractor controller in response to the patient input; and

changing at least one of the first refraction and the second refraction in response to the refraction change signal by at least one of a shared actuator, a first channel actuator and a second channel actuator, coupled to the multi-channel subjective refractor controller.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein:

the method is semi-automated, wherein

the patient input includes a new refraction value for at least one of the first refraction and the second refraction; and

the generating the refraction change signal includes translating the entered new refraction value into the refraction change signal by the refraction controller.

11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein:

the method is automated, wherein

the patient input does not include a new refraction value for at least one of the first refraction and the second refraction;

the multi-channel refraction controller comprises a processor; and

the generating the refraction change signal includes generating the refraction change signal by performing a search algorithm to identify a new refraction value from the patient input by the processor.

12 . The method of claim 7 , comprising:

repeating the generating, the presenting, the prompting, the receiving, and the changing steps iteratively until either the first refraction or the second refraction is identified as optimal.

13 . The method of claim 7 , comprising:

exchanging a spatial presentation of the first image with the first refraction and the second image with the second refraction after the optimal refraction has been identified; and

testing whether the optimal refraction remained optimal after the exchange.

14 . The method of claim 1 , the generating comprising:

generating the first image and the second image with approximately the same background color.

15 . The method of claim 1 , the generating comprising:

generating the first image with the first refraction and the second image with the second refraction that is different from the first refraction.