Patent ID: 7281797

Claim:
An optical-characteristic measurement apparatus comprising: an eye-anterior-part illumination light source for illuminating an eye anterior part of an eye under measurement; an eye-anterior-part observation section for receiving light reflected from the eye anterior part of the eye under measurement illuminated, and for generating an eye anterior image of the eye under measurement; a movement-distance calculation section for measuring the displacement of the eye under measurement indicating the shift between an optical axis and the eye under measurement, based on the generated eye anterior image; a wavefront compensation device for compensating the wavefront of light reflected or transmitted, based on a given control signal; a wavefront measurement section for projecting light used for wavefront measurement on the eyeground of the eye under measurement and for receiving light reflected from the eyeground of the eye under measurement through the wavefront compensation device; an aberration calculation section for measuring wavefront aberration of the eye under measurement, based on the displacement of the eye under measurement measured by the movement-distance calculation section and a light-receiving signal obtained by the wavefront measurement section; a stage for moving the wavefront compensation device, based on the displacement of the eye under measurement measured by the movement-distance calculation section, in a direction transversing the optical axis of the light reflected from the eyeground of the eye under measurement or in a direction of a plane perpendicular to a normal line of the wavefront compensation device; and a wavefront-compensation-device control apparatus for generating a control signal used to perform wavefront compensation such that aberration becomes small, based on the wavefront aberration measured by the aberration calculation section, and for outputting the generated control signal to the wavefront compensation device to compensate the wavefront, wherein the aberration calculation section measures an optical characteristic of the eye under measurement, based on the compensation of the wavefront compensation device corresponding to the control signal for the wavefront compensation, the displacement of the eye under measurement measured by the movement-distance calculation section, and the light-receiving signal obtained by the wavefront measurement section after the wavefront is compensated by the wavefront compensation device.