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Dyop® - Dynamic Optotype™ Helping the world see clearly, one
person at a time |
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Introducing the Dyop®
The “Revolutionary” Method for Measuring Acuity (Visual Clarity)
When you see images on your computer
monitor, tablet screen, or SmartPhone, you
think that you are seeing letters or words or lines or shapes. What you are actually seeing are “scanning lines” of pixels of light
moving rapidly across the screen in combinations of red, green, and
blue. The dynamic motion of
those moving pixels keeps the image from burning itself into the screen of
the monitor. Vision is a dynamic
process inherent in all animals.
Our bodies and eyes are biological machines, and the world we see is
dynamic, NOT static. Our eyes developed as sensors to detect
motion, distance, and colors, to enable us to detect predators and game, and
to eat rather than be eaten. To be effective and efficient, vision has to be a dynamic and
autonomic process, where we are totally unaware of the visual process
mechanics. As you are reading this, you think you
are seeing lines and shapes and letters.
Instead you are seeing pixels of
electronic light generated by the phosphors within the surface of your
computer screen or SmartPhone and perceived by the photoreceptors in
the back of your retina. However, much
like the “scanning lines” on an electronic display, vision is a dynamic
process. The dynamic motion of those moving pixels keeps
the image from burning itself into the screen of the monitor. Much like the pixels of light being in
motion, the retina photoreceptors in the back of the eye are moving as a
result of the saccade process. Those
retina photoreceptors combine the dynamic responses (primarily of the colors Red, Green,
and Blue)
into giving you the illusion of vision.
When you look at an object, the
biological lens changes its shape to focus the image (a process called
accommodation) on the back center of the retina. For a distance images, the lens is thin. For near images, the lens has to become
more rounded to bend the light. That accommodation
process of the lens changing its shape is part of Dynamic Visual Acuity keeps your eyes refreshed when you look at
letters or words or lines or shapes due to the inherent vibrations of the photoreceptors provided by the visual
saccades. The saccades allow the
photoreceptors to be refreshed (equivalent to a shutter speed of about 0.33
arc minutes squared per second) and provide a dynamic response (primarily of
the colors red, green, and blue) to give you
the illusion of vision.
The disparate focal depths for Red, Green and
Blue
(where Red
is focused BEHIND the retina, Green ON the retina, and Blue in FRONT of the retina) also provide Chromatic Triangulation to regulate
the shape of the lens of the eye and the relative focal depth of the image
being viewed. However, HOW YOU SEE is affected
by the ratio of the Red vs. Green photoreceptors in your eye. A higher ratio of Red/Green photoreceptors (75% Red
and 20% Green) provides a more stable
distance image but a more unstable
near image. A more balanced ratio
of Red vs.
Green photoreceptors
(50% Red and
45% Green)
provides a more stable near image. A High-Red-Ratio Vision (75% Red and 20% Green) is associated with enabling the
ability able to spot predators and game, and with cultures which use
pictographic writing. A Balanced-Red-Ratio Vision (50% Red and 45% Green) is associated with cultures that use
letter-based words and “Western technology.” That unstable near-image process of High-Red-Ratio Vision is typically associated with
symptoms of dyslexia, migraines, and epilepsy. Response
to colors by the biological lens Chromatic Triangulation has Green Focused ON the
retina
Dynamic Visual Acuity is provided by the vibratory
motion of the visual saccades, which refresh the responsiveness of the
photoreceptors located in the back of the retina, much like the pixel
scanning lines on an electronic display.
That photoreceptor refresh in turn allows the neurons on the inner
surface of the retina to act as the equivalent of a biological circuit board.
It also allows the photoreceptors to use the constantly changing chromatic
triangulation of the blue, green, and red focal depths to regulate
acuity. The eye functions to receive visual stimuli and be
self-regulating as to acuity. The
retina of the eye functions as a biological computer which perceives strobic
stimuli via the saccade process rather than just as a transmitter of lines
and shapes to the brain via the optic nerves. Much like a camera sending images to a memory chip, the eye
functions as a pixelized source of retina stimuli to create vision and bring
that image into focus. Twenty-first
century digital cameras use computerized electronic pixels which respond to
the colors and intensity to create the images we see. In the eye, the
response of about 100 photoreceptors is merged into every optic nerve going
to the brain. The photoreceptors of
the eye function like computerized pixels with the photoreceptor refresh rate
and the saccade process providing much of the refresh mechanism. The
saccade process exists primarily to provide a refresh period for the
photoreceptors when looking at static images to avoid photoreceptor stimulus
extinction. As a result of
the varying focal depths for colors, "relaxed vision" for some
trichromats has Green focused on the retina and Red focused behind the retina. That
learned Red/Green
acuity focal depth response regulates acuity and accommodation. Rather than accommodation being regulated
by the length of the eye, the adjustment as to accommodation is the learned
response as to the comparative focal depth for Red and Green. The deceptive factor of Black/White
acuity measurement is that it masks the mechanics of accommodation
regulation. In his 2011
Proctor Lecture presentation Dr. Richard Masland described retina functioning
as being similar to a "biological computer" with the photoreceptors
functioning much as binary switches. http://www.dyop.info/documents/Retinal_cells-Masland_ProcterLecture.pdf A simple illustration of the
functioning of dynamic vision and photoreceptor depletion is The Lilac Chaser Illusion. When
you fixate on the Plus (+) in the center of the ring of Pink circles below, you
likely see the Pink circles seeming to rotate around that Plus. But it is also likely that you will see
a single moving Green
circle which appears to spin around the plus. The illusion of the Green circle appearing is because of
the depletion of the Red
photoreceptor refresh resulting in the inability to “see” the color Red and creating the illusion
(delusion) that the depleted photoreceptor area is seeing a Green circle. The other two illusions illustrate the
creation of cognition (Open Your Eyes) even if it isn’t there, and the
refresh effect of the saccades to create an illusion of motion (Moving
Dimple Pattern) even when it isn’t there.
A Dyop® (pronounced “di-op
and short for dynamic optotype) is spinning segmented ring used as a visual
target (optotype). A Dyop functions
similar to visual tuning fork to precisely, consistently, and efficiently
benchmark your acuity (visual clarity) using Dynamic Resolution Acuity rather than “traditional” Static Recognition Acuity of
letter-based tests. The gaps and
segments of the spinning Dyop create a strobic binary stimulus of the
photoreceptors of your eye. When the gap AREA
of a spinning Dyop gets too small, that strobic visual stimulus
area is too small for the photoreceptors to detect that gap motion. The smallest diameter Dyop ring, where the direction of
the gaps spinning motion is detected, benchmarks acuity (visual clarity) and
may be used to determine refractions. It also allows the precise
measurement of vision in color, vision in children and infants, and vision in
non-literate individuals.
The strobic stimulus of the spinning Black/White-on-Gray Dyop gaps/segments functions
as a (binary) on/off switch to stimulate the photoreceptors
facilitating Resonance Acuity in response to the photoreceptors saccade refresh movements. The
strobic Dyop stimulus lets you sense the pixel response to the images you are
seeing. The acuity endpoint is the
smallest diameter where the direction of spinning can be detected.
How We
See
Click
here for the How We See White Paper
Current
vision “standards” use Static Visual Acuity based upon the 1862
cultural ability to detect the size and differences between static letters
such as “E” and “C.” As a result, it
mistakes cognition for acuity, and improperly and imprecisely “measures”
vision. Because vision is actually a
dynamic process, using Static Visual Acuity, and static targets to
measure vision, depletes the response of the photoreceptors, is inherently
imprecise and unnecessarily inefficient, and tends to produce an overminused (excess spherical power) refraction. “Classical” letter-based
vision tests use a theoretical gap stimulus area (the Minimum AREA of Resolution - MAR)
of 1.0 arc minutes squared. That letter-based stimulus AREA is almost twice the size of the
empirically derived 0.54 arc minutes
squared Dyop actual Minimum AREA
of Resolution. Static letter-based
tests are also inherently imprecise because they use the cognition of
cultural shapes to benchmark vision rather than the actual physiological
response of the eye. Cognition of
European-type letters based letters become a guessing game for both the
doctor and patient and measures conceptual processing by the patient as much
as it does visual clarity. The strobic stimulus of the spinning
Black/White-on-Gray Dyop gap/segments functions as a (binary)
on/off switch to stimulate the photoreceptors. As the stimulus
area of the Dyop gap/segment AREA
becomes too small, that stimulus area becomes smaller than the minimum AREA of photoreceptor visual
resolution. The angular arc width of the smallest diameter Dyop
ring detected as spinning creates an acuity endpoint which provides a
precise, accurate, and efficient method of measuring visual acuity. That
precise acuity endpoint also creates optimum values for sphere, cylinder, and
axis and aids in avoiding an overminused refraction. That 10% stroke width and 40 RPM rotation rate also seem to be
the optimum values for Dyop attributes and maximizing its precision and
accuracy. The “optimum
Dyop” has a 10% stroke width with 8 uniformly spaced gaps and 8 contrasting
segments and a 40 RPM rotation rate which creates a 0.54 arc minutes squared
stimulus area (Minimum Area of
Resolution – MAR). The “optimum Dyop” also correlates to a
Dyop being up to six times as precise as Snellen testing, with one-sixth the
variance, up to three times as efficient, can measure acuity regardless of
the subjects level of literacy or culture, and can measure acuity in
color. That more precise stimulus area
results in a Dyop acuity having a linear increase in diameter and diopters of
blur versus Snellen testing typically have a logarithmic increase in height
with diopters of blur. The smallest Dyop gap/segment stimulus
area detected as spinning as the minimum visual stimulus threshold area
(Minimum AREA of Resolution - MAR) of 0.54 arc minutes squared
correlates to about 20 photoreceptors. That threshold is significantly more
precise, consistent, and efficient than staring at letters. The actual
direction of Dyop spinning is irrelevant.
That detection of spinning also lets the Dyop test be used
for individuals who “can’t read,” infants and young children, and individuals
with letter-processing problems such as dyslexia. The
current global “standard” for measuring vision was developed in 1862, and is
based upon the cultural ability of Europeans to detect the size and
differences between static letters such as “E” and “C.” As a result it mistakes cognition for
acuity, it improperly and imprecisely “measures” vision, it is culturally
biased, and it is dependent upon the subject having letter-based literacy. “Classical” Static and
letter-based vision tests use a theoretical gap stimulus area (the Minimum
AREA of Resolution) of 1.0 arc minutes squared. That letter-based stimulus AREA is larger
than the empirically derived 0.54 arc minutes squared Dyop actual Minimum AREA
of Resolution. That Static MAR correlates to a cluster of about 40 photoreceptors. Static letter-based tests
are also inherently imprecise because they use the cognition of cultural
shapes to benchmark vision rather than the actual physiological response of
the eye. Cognition of European-type
letters based letters become a guessing game for both the doctor and patient
and measures conceptual processing by the patient as much as it does visual
clarity. Until now, however, how
we see and how our eyes adjusts its visual focus has remained a mystery. Your eyes function similar to the
pixels receptors of a computerized video camera. The eye’s
photoreceptors not only allow you to see in color (primarily Red, Green and
Blue),
but the refresh rate of the photoreceptors, the saccade process, and the
matrix response of the photoreceptors allow you to track changes in the
location of those images. The response
of about 100 photoreceptors combines to create the stimulus for each optic
nerve fiber going to the brain which creates vision and brings that image
into focus. However, the neural
ganglia layer of the retina “process” those photoreceptor responses in
clusters of about 20 photoreceptors much as a biological circuit board with
the emphasis on patterns of motion and proximity. The comparative focal depth of the red,
green, and blue colors of the images also regulates the shape of the
biological lens and adjusts focal clarity. The strobic stimulus of
the spinning Black/White-on-Gray Dyop gap/segments functions
as a (binary) on/off switch to stimulate the
photoreceptors. As the stimulus area of the Dyop gap/segment AREA
becomes too small, that stimulus area becomes smaller than the minimum AREA of photoreceptor visual
resolution. The angular arc width of the smallest diameter Dyop
ring detected as spinning creates an acuity endpoint which provides a
precise, accurate, and efficient method of measuring visual acuity. That
precise acuity endpoint also creates optimum values for sphere, cylinder, and
axis and aids in avoiding an overminused refraction. The retinal pixel process
is similar to the display of a television or your computer. Detecting the spinning gaps/segments is
similar to detecting the electronic pixels.
Computer pixels are so small that, unless you are close enough, you
only see lines or shapes and NOT the pixels. As the spinning gap/segment area of
a Dyop gets too small due to the angular width of the ring getting
smaller, that gap/segment photoreceptor stimulus area becomes too small for
the photoreceptor clusters to detect that motion. That
smallest Dyop stimulus area detected as spinning creates
a visual clarity threshold (acuity endpoint) and is a cluster
area of about 20 photoreceptors. That
Dyop acuity and refraction endpoint is also significantly more precise than
staring at letters inherent in the Snellen test because it is functionally
about half the area (0.54 arc minutes squared) than the 1.0 arc minute
squared average Snellen stimulus area.
The ability to detect motion is also a survival tool as critical as
detecting the size of the image itself. We See in Color
Color Acuity can also be used for diagnostic tests See www.redgreenscreening.com for
the details and that Dyop test.
Certain Dyop color/contrast combinations can
also be used to screen for potential symptoms of dyslexia, migraines, and
epilepsy. Rather than
accommodation being regulated by the length of the eye, the adjustment as to
accommodation is the learned response as to the comparative focal depth for Red and Green. The deceptive factor of Black/White acuity measurement is
that it masks the mechanics of accommodation regulation. - - - - - - - The History of Vision Measurement Thousands of years ago, visual clarity (acuity)
was defined by the ability to see the nighttime gap between two of the
smaller stars in the handle of the Big Dipper constellation.
In 1862 Dutch Ophthalmologist Herman Snellen
used the ability to identify (European) letters as the benchmark for visual
acuity. Reading had become a dominant
economic and social skill in Europe.
Snellen used the convenience of black letters on a white background as
the benchmark although most of what we
see is NOT in black and white and other cultures use pictographs rather than
letter-based words. While twenty first century technology is
letter-based technology, today’s visual acuity is primarily measured by the
clarity and ability to read text on an electronic display. Unfortunately, vision science has not kept
up with the precision and demands of those 21st century visual
needs. The
use of Dynamic Visual Acuity to
provide increased precision, increased consistency, and increased efficiency
of the Dyop® tests are intended as a global replacement for Static Visual Acuity letter-based
tests such as Snellen, Sloan, and Landolt optotypes, and provide a more
universal and efficient method of vision measurement. Origin of the Dyop®
Concept http://www.dyop.info/documents/Origin_of_Dyops.pdf The ADDED problem of a less than
Optimum Refraction is that it impairs cognition as well as vision. http://www.induceddyslexia.com/ This is especially
significant now that we are no longer
in the Age of Information or the Age of Information Overload but we are now in the Age of Comprehension The scientific and commercialization
benefits of the Dyop concept are due to its increased precision, consistency,
efficiency, and broader range of vision test attributes, and universal
patient acceptance versus "conventional" (1862)
static-letter-visual testing. The “Perfect Storm of mis-prescriptions” which led to the Dyop Tests
http://www.dyop.info/documents/Allan'sProductivity=1988_to_2008.pdf This Dyop "personal research
history" is anecdotal. However, all of the discoveries and
research has been peer-review validated by academically trained optometry
professors. Their research was also provided at NO charge due to their
scientific curiosity and the potential of improving visual processes.
The goal of the anecdotal research has been have those discoveries
reproducible and simple enough so that they could be peer-review
validated. The nature of the discoveries and the scientific validation
has been stunning and delightful. The observations which followed over
the next ten years are from discovering how and why that Snellen-generated
overminus occurred. It is easy to detect an image which
needs a more spherical lens power because it will appear blurry. It is more difficult to detect an image
which has too much spherical power because the image will appear to be
hyper-crisp. The advantage of a Dyop
test versus static images is that the Dyop arc width diameter will reach a
minimum when the combination of the optimum sphere, cylinder, and axis is
achieved. The inherent tendency to fixate on static images during vision
testing tends to result in a measurement with excess visual sphere. Eyeglass and contact wearers tend to NOT be
aware of their overminus. The "optimum" Dyop rotation
rate seems to be a 7.6 arc minute and the "optimum" stroke width
seems to be 40 rpm for a Dyop 20/20 acuity endpoint. The
"optimum" Dyop stimulus area equivalent to a Snellen 20/20, or
Metric 6/6, acuity and refraction endpoint is 0.54 arc minutes squared, or
the equivalent of about 20 photoreceptors. That "optimum" 0.54 arc
minute squared stimulus area at a 40 rpm rotation speed creates a
photoreceptor refresh rate (much like the shutter speed of a camera) of 0.33
arc minutes squared per second. Dyop Concept of Accommodation Dyop vs. Snellen Comparison A comparison of the Dyop test vs. the Snellen/Sloan/Landolt
tests leads to the following conclusions as to the numerous flaws inherent in
Snellen-type letter-based vision testing. 1. The
stimulus perceived by the retina is an AREA
rather than a one dimensional value of height as defined by Snellen.
The Dyop® (Dynamic Optotype™) tests and concept are covered
under U.S. Patent US 8,083,353 and International Published Patent WO
2011/022428. For further information contact: Allan Hytowitz at Allan@Dyop.org 5035 Morton Ferry Circle, Johns Creek, GA, 30022 / 404-281-7798 Copyright ©2022 DyopVision™ Associates. All Rights
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