Adaptive sequential wavefront sensor with variable aperture

1. An apparatus comprising:

a sub-wavefront focusing lens configured to focus a returned sub-wavefront to an image spot on a focal plane, with the returned sub-wavefront being a portion of a wavefront returned from the patient's eye, where the wavefront is generated by a light source;

a sequential wavefront scanning device configured to sequentially shift the returned wavefront by a first displacement in a first dimension and a second displacement in a second dimension so that different portions of the wavefront are sequentially projected onto the sub-wavefront focusing lens;

a variable aperture configured to control the size of the sub-wavefront to be focused by the sub-wavefront focusing lens ;

a position sensing device, located substantially at the focal plane of the sub-wavefront focusing lens, configured to indicate the two-dimensional displacement from a reference point of the image spot on the focal plane; and

a controller, coupled to the-variable aperture and sequential wavefront scanning device, configured to coordinate the operation of the variable aperture and the sequential wavefront scanning device to control the wavefront sampling speed, the spatial resolution, and the sampling pattern.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 where an input wavefront includes a central and an outer portion and where the controller is further configured to increase the aperture size when the central portion is sampled and to decrease the aperture size when the outer portion is sampled.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a controllable light source, operable either in a continuous, pulse or burst mode, configured to generate a narrow light beam; and

a beam directing element configured to direct at least a portion of the beam towards a patient's eye; and

with the controller coupled to the controllable light source and configured to coordinate the variable aperture the sequential wavefront scanning device and the controllable light source.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 where an input wavefront includes a central and an outer portion and where the controller is further configured to increase the aperture size and decrease output power of the controllable light source when the central portion is sampled and to decrease the aperture size and increase output power of the controllable light source when the outer portion is sampled.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

an ophthalmic examination device utilized to examine characteristics of a patient's eye, with the ophthalmic examination device configured so that examination results are registered with wavefront measurements; and

with the controller coupled to the ophthalmic examination device and configured to coordinate the operation of the variable aperture, the sequential wavefront scanning device and the ophthalmic examination device.