The optomechanical eye model provided objective grading of IOLs through the evaluation of simulated visual acuity, which can be scaled usefully to human vision. The eye model also allowed the qualitative visualization of IOL imaging properties, making it potentially useful in characterizing and distinguishing different IOL types.

Multifocal IOLs of different optical designs were well characterized and distinguished by simulated contrast acuity testing in an experimental eye model, allowing quantitative comparison. Their overall visual performance, averaged over contrast and distance, was not superior to the performance of a monofocal IOL without an additional correcting lens.

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Human visual performances (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity) are commonly measured under heterogeneous ambient luminance conditions, generally referred to as "mesopic", without any control of the subject's pupil size. Actually, the optical performances of the eye are strongly dependent on the pupil aperture, due to the increasing effect of optical aberrations, mainly spherical aberration, which progressively degrade vision.We have developed and tested an apparatus intended to measure visual acuity and contrast sensitivity of enunetropic or ametropic subjects while continuously measuring the pupil size, which is allowed to be varied by changing the background luminance. The apparatus is mounted onto a helmet for indirect ophthalmoscopy and is driven by a personal computer, which generates characters and gratings of variable size and orientation. An infrared pupillometer keeps trace of the pupil dimension every second. The apparatus is fully described and the preliminary tests on emmetropic and ametropic subjects are reported.The measurement system is particularly suited for assessing visual performances in professional categories where keen vision is to be associated with scotopic conditions (e.g. car drivers, aircraft pilots) and as pre/post examination for all types of refractive surgery.