ABSTRACT
Methods to correct the optics of the human eye are at least 700 years old. Spectacles have been used to correct defocus at least as early as the 13th century (1, 2) and to correct astigmatism since the 19th century (3). Since then there has been relatively little work on correcting additional aberrations in the eye. Recently, however, advances in measuring the aberrations of the human eye and in compensating for them with adaptive optics make it possible to provide the eye with unprecedented optical quality. An observer viewing the world through adaptive optics can have a sharper image of it than he has ever had before. Adaptive optics can correct the aberrations for light leaving the eye as well as for light entering it, which make it possible to obtain sharper images of the living retina as well.
