Skip to main content

Light Detection and Sensitivity

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Visual Display Technology
  • 374 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter deals with the absolute threshold of vision, namely, the minimum amount of light necessary to elicit a visual response. The effect of intrinsic retinal noise which affects light detection is considered; this is followed by a discussion on intensity discrimination by both rods and cones.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

Tvi:

Threshold versus intensity

Further Readings

  • Barlow H (1956) Retinal noise and absolute threshold. J Opt Soc Am 46:634–639

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baylor DA, Lamb TK, Yau KW (1979) Responses of retinal rods to single photons. J Physiol 288:613–634

    Google Scholar 

  • Baylor DA, Nunn B, Schnapf JL (1984) The photocurrent, noise and spectral sensitivity of the rods of the monkey Macaca fascicularis. J Physiol 357:575–607

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bialek W (1987) Physical limits to sensation and perception. Ann Rev Biophys Biophys Chem 16:455–478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birch DG (2003) Chapter 24: visual adaptation. In: Kaufman PL, Alm A (eds) Adler’s physiology of the eye, 10th edn. Mosby, St. Louis

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell HR (1946) Contrast thresholds of the human eye. J Opt Soc Am 36:624–643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornsweet T (1970) Visual perception. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Davson H (1990) Physiology of the eye, 5th edn. Macmillan Academic and Professional Ltd., London

    Google Scholar 

  • Donner K (1992) Noise and the absolute thresholds of cones and rod vision. Vision Res 32:853–866

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Field GD, Sampath AP, Rieke F (2005) Retinal processing near absolute threshold: from behavior to mechanism. Annu Rev Physiol 67:491–514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gescheider G (1997) Psychophysics: the fundamentals. Psychology Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamer RD, Nicholas SC, Tranchina D, Liebman PA, Lamb TD (2003) Multiple steps of phosphorylation of activated rhodopsin can account for the reproducibility of vertebrate rod single photon responses. J Gen Physiol 122:419–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamer RD, Nicholas SC, Tranchina D, Lamb TD, Jarvinen JLP (2005) Toward a unified model of vertebrate rod phototransduction. Vis Neurosci 22:417–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harwerth RS, Smith EL, DeSantis L (1993) Mechanisms mediating visual detection in static perimetry. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 34:3011–3023

    Google Scholar 

  • Hecht S, Schlaer S, Pirenne MH (1942) Energy, quanta and vision. J Gen Physiol 25:819–840

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakshminarayanan V (2005) Vision and the single photon. Proc SPIE 5836:332–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynn JR, Felman RL, Starita RJ (1996) Principles of perimetry. In: Riitch R, Shields MB, Krupin T (eds) The glaucomas. Mosby, St. Louis, pp 491–521

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer SE (1999) Vision science. Photons to perception. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirenne MH (1962a) Absolute thresholds and quantum effects. In: Davson H (ed) The eye. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirenne MH (1962b) Chapter 5: dark adaptation and night vision. In: Davson H (ed) The eye, vol 2. Academic, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Reike F, Baylor DA (1998) Single photon detection by rod cells of the retina. Rev Mod Phys 70:1027–1036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodieck RW (1998) The first steps in seeing. Sinauer, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Sakitt B (1972) Counting every quantum. J Physiol 223:131–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van der Velden HA (1946) The number of quanta necessary for the perception of light of the human eye. Ophthalmologica 111:321–331 (originally published in Dutch in Physica)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wandell BA (1995) Foundations of vision. Sinauer, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickehart DR (2003) Biochemistry of the eye. Butterworth-Heinemann, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lakshminarayanan, V. (2015). Light Detection and Sensitivity. In: Chen, J., Cranton, W., Fihn, M. (eds) Handbook of Visual Display Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35947-7_5-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35947-7_5-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35947-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

Publish with us

Policies and ethics