Patent ID: 7857451

Claim:
A method for optimizing a refractive prescription without using subjective refractions, the method comprising the steps of: a. obtaining aberrometric data from a patient by way of an aberrometer; and b. selecting an objective image quality metric, wherein the objective metric of image quality is selected from a group consisting of average blur strength (“B ave ”), pupil fraction when the critical pupil is defined as the concentric area for which RMS w is less than a criterion (“PFW c ”), pupil fraction when the critical pupil is defined as the concentric area for which RMS s is less than the criterion (“PFS c ”), pupil fraction when the critical pupil is defined as the concentric area for which B ave is less than the criterion (“PFC c ”), area of a good subaperature divided by the total area of a pupil when the good subaperature satisfies a criterion PV<the criterion (“PFW t ”), area of the good subaperature divided by the total area of a pupil when the good subaperature satisfies a criterion horizontal slope and vertical slope are both less than the criterion (“PFS t ”), area of the good subaperature divided by a total area of a pupil when the good subaperature satisfies the criterion B less than the criterion (“PFC t ”), visual strehl ratio computed in a spatial domain (“VSX”), visual strehl ratio computed in a frequency domain by modulation transfer function method (“VSMTF”), visual strehl ratio computed in the frequency domain by optical-transfer function method (“VSOTF”), volume under optical transfer function normalized by a volume under modulation-transfer function (“VOTF”), volume under neurally-weighted optical transfer function normalized by the volume under neurally-weighted modulation-transfer function (“VNOTF”); c. computing the objective image quality metric from the aberrometric data; d. iteratively modifying the level of spherical and cylindrical defocus of the abberometric data; e. computing the modified objective image quality metric from the modified abberometric data; f. repeating steps c and d until the modified objective image quality metric is optimized; and g. generating at least one clinical refractive sphereocylindrical prescription for the patient based on the optimized objective image quality metric.