Optical filter quality effect on pupil size in night driving.

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2009

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Vinas Pena, M.
Chamorro Gutiérrez, E.
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Luminance conditions during driving vary tremendously, with, in some cases, abrupt differences between areas of intense and poor illumination, depending on the daytime, the weather, vehicle headlights and the environmental illumination, among others. This affects to the driver´s visual system, which is able to adapt itself to these different luminances by varyting its pupil size. There is little doubt that the most important and best-studied afferent visual signal that drives the pupil is generated by changing the ambient illumination. The accepted clinical view of the pupil response to light is that the ambient light level determines largely the steady state size of the pupil and that rapid increments in light flux on the retina cause a brisk constriction of the pupil, that is often described as the dynamic pupil light relfex response. The pupil response to changes in ambient illumination is best served by neural mechanisms that respond to overall light flux changes, cover a large dynamic range and exhibit large spatial summation. Pupillary response to light measures the integrity of neuronal pathways goberning pupil size. The oculomotor nerve is the efferent link and the optic nerve is the afferent link. The mechanisms controlling the pupillary constriction and dilation have been explained by Barbur (2004) and Lowenfeld (1993). Briefly, a large pupil diameter reduces distortion due to light diffraction and dispersion and allow more light to reach the retina. Conversely, by limiting the entry of light rays, a small pupil increases the depth of focus and reduces chromatic and spherical aberrations.
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