UC Berkeley

Many people have had the experience of viewing the world through optics, such as when wearing corrective spectacles or using augmented and virtual reality devices (AR/VR). The purpose of the optical lenses present in spectacles and devices is to bring images into focus, but they also produce unwanted distortions such as magnification and minification that change the retinal image size or shape of an object. Surprisingly, small changes in retinal image size or shape can have substantial perceptual and physical consequences. While spectacles have been around for centuries, there remains a large gap in the literature on how optical distortions affect the viewer. This dissertation contains experimental investigations related to how optical distortions affect perception and comfort, and how these effects change over time. Chapter 1 establishes a fundamental understanding of the onset of perceptual and physical symptoms produced by optical minification. Chapter 2 investigates how people adapt over time to a specific type of monocular distortion that alters depth and shape perception. Chapter 3 investigates how the visual system interprets the geometry of objects when faced with perceptual disruptions caused by optical distortions. Together this research provides a much-needed foundational understanding of optical distortions from multiple domains.