System and method of calculating visual performance of an ophthalmic optical correction using simulation of imaging by a population of eye optical systems

1. A method of calculating clinical performance of an ophthalmic optical correction using simulation by imaging a series of objects of different sizes by each of a plurality of eye optical systems, the method comprising:

initially, determining a threshold, including: clinically measuring visual acuity, anatomical parameters and optical parameters of a population of eyes; providing an eye optical system corresponding to each eye in said population based on said parameters;

and correlating clinically measured just-resolvable object sizes and just-resolvable object sizes calculated by the corresponding eye optical system; and subsequently:

A. at an object distance, calculating a set of indicia of image quality, each indicium of the set of indicia corresponding to an object in the series of objects when it is imaged by a given one of the plurality of eye optical systems that include the ophthalmic optical correction;

B. at the object distance, comparing the set of indicia to said threshold to determine a just-resolvable object size for the given one of the plurality of eye optical systems that include the ophthalmic optical correction; and

C. repeating steps A and B for each eye optical system in the plurality of eye optical systems.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ophthalmic optical correction comprises use of an ophthalmic lens.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising modifying an ophthalmic optical correction to include features of the ophthalmic optical correction based on steps A, B and C.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting an ophthalmic optical correction for use based on steps A, B and C.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of indicia of image quality comprises an indication of resolution.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of indicia of image quality comprises substantially only resolution information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of indicia of image quality comprises an indication of contrast.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of indicia of image quality comprises substantially only contrast information.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of indicia of image quality comprises resolution information and contrast information.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps A, B and C are repeated for a plurality of object distances.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein, the step of calculating a set of indicia of image quality comprises, for at least one of the plurality of object distances, calculating indicia of image quality for only a subset of the series of objects of different sizes.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of calculating a set of indicia of image quality comprises, for at least one of the eye optical systems, calculating using different anatomical parameters for objects at different distances of the plurality of object distances.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the series of objects of different sizes consists of a series of same letters of different sizes.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein step A comprises, for an object in the series of objects, combining two or more image quality metrics, a first of the metrics providing a greater amount of resolution information and a second of the metrics providing a greater amount of contrast information.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the combining is achieved by multiplying the first of the metrics and the second of the metric together.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first metric contains substantially only resolution information.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the second metric contains substantially only contrast information.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of converting the just-resolvable object sizes for each eye optical system to anticipated, clinical, just-resolvable object sizes using a linear mapping.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of converting the just-resolvable object sizes for each eye optical system to anticipated, clinical, just-resolvable object sizes using a non-linear mapping.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises calculating the set of indicia of image quality at only one object distance for each eye optical system.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein step A. is performed by optical design software.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein step A is performed by an adaptive optical system.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a threshold includes:

i) At an object distance, for each eye, clinically measuring a smallest resolvable object size, resulting in a clinical series of data;

ii) for each eye optical system, calculating an indicium of image quality for each object size, at each distance;

iii) determining a first series of just-resolvable-object size at each distance for each eye optical system using a first presumed threshold;

iv) determining a first correlation factor between the first series and the clinical series of data;

v) determining a second series of just-resolvable-object size at each distance for each eye optical system using a second presumed threshold;

vi) determining a second correlation factor between the second series and the clinical series of data; and

vii) selecting as the threshold the first presumed threshold if the first correlation factor is greater than the second correlation factor, and the second presumed threshold if the second correlation factor is greater than the first correlation factor.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein at least one of the first correlation factor and second correlation factor is calculated using a linear fitting curve.

25. The method of claim 23 , wherein at least one the first correlation factor and second correlation factor is calculated using a non-linear fitting curve.

26. The method of claim 23 , wherein at least one of steps I. and ii. is repeated for multiple object distances.