Statistical description of wave-front aberration in the human eye.

The wave aberration of the human eye has been measured by means of a Hartmann-Shack wave-front sensor in a population of normal subjects. The set of data has been used to compute the phase distribution, the power spectrum, and the structure function for the average eye to analyze the statistics of the ocular aberration considered as a phase screen. The observed statistics fits the classical Kolmogorov model of a statistically homogeneous medium. These results can be of use in understanding the average effect of aberrations on the retinal image and can serve as a tool to analyze the consequences of ocular-aberration compensation by adaptive optics, customized ophtalmic elements, or refractive surgery.