Human Eye

May 9, 2012

The human eye is an organ that responds to light for a number of purposes.

As a conscious sense body organ, a person’s eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells within the retina enable conscious light perception as well as vision which includes color differentiation and the perception of depth. A person’s eye can distinguish about ten million colors.
In common with the eyes of other mammals, the human eye’s non-image-forming photosensitive ganglion cells within the retina get the light signals that affect adjustment of the dimensions of the pupil, regulation as well as suppression of the hormone melatonin and entrainment of the body time clock.

The eye isn’t accurately a sphere, instead it is a merged two-piece unit. The smaller frontal unit, much more curved, known as the cornea is linked to the larger unit referred to as sclera. The corneal section is usually about 8 mm (0.3 in) in radius. The sclera makes up the rest of the five-sixths; its radius is usually about 12 mm. The cornea as well as the sclera are connected by a ring known as the limbus. The iris – the color of your eye – and its black center, the pupil, are noticed instead of the cornea because of the cornea’s transparency. To see within the eye, an ophthalmoscope is required, since light isn’t reflected out. The fundus (region opposite the pupil) reveals the characteristic pale optic disk (papilla), in which vessels arriving into the eye move across and optic nerve fibers get away from the globe.

Dimensions
The dimensions vary among adults by just one or two mm. The vertical measure, usually less than the horizontal distance, is approximately 24 mm among adults, at birth about 16-17 millimeters. (about 0.65 inch) The eyeball develops rapidly, growing to 22.5-23 mm (approx. 0.89 in) by the age of 3 years. From then to age 13, a person’s eye reaches its full size. The volume is 6.5 ml (0.4 cu. in.) and the weight is 7.5 g. (0.25 oz.)

Components
The eye consists of three coats, enclosing three transparent structures. The outermost layer consists of the cornea and sclera. The middle layer is made up of the choroid, ciliary body, and iris. The innermost is the retina, which usually gets its blood flow from the vessels of the choroid as well as the retinal vessels, that may be seen in an ophthalmoscope.

Within these coats are the aqueous humor, the vitreous body, as well as the flexible lens. The aqueous humor is really a clear fluid that is incorporated into two areas: the anterior chamber between the cornea and the iris and exposed section of the lens; and the rear chamber, behind the iris and the rest. The lens is actually suspended to the ciliary body by the suspensory ligament (Zonule of Zinn), comprised of fine transparent fibers. The vitreous body is a clear jelly that’s much bigger than the aqueous humor, and it is bordered by the sclera, zonule, and lens. They are attached via the pupil.

Dynamic range
The retina has a fixed contrast ratio close to 100:1 (about 6½ f-stops). When the eye moves (saccades) it re-adjusts its exposure both chemically as well as geometrically by modifying the iris which handles the size of the pupil. Initial dark adaptation happens in approximately four seconds of profound, continuous darkness; full adaptation by means of adjustments in retinal chemistry (the Purkinje effect) are generally complete in 30 mins. Therefore, a dynamic contrast ratio approximately 1,000,000:1 (about 20 f-stops) is achievable. The process is nonlinear and multifaceted, so an interruption by light simply starts the adaptation process once again. Full adaptation depends on good flow of blood; thus dark adaptation could be hampered by poor blood circulation, and vasoconstrictors like alcohol or tobacco.

A person’s eye includes a lens not different to lenses present in optical instruments such as cameras and the same principles can be applied. The pupil of the human eye is its aperture; the iris is the diaphragm which serves as the aperture stop. Refraction inside the cornea causes the effective aperture (the entrance pupil) to vary slightly from the physical pupil diameter. The entrance pupil is normally about 4 mm in diameter, although it can vary from 2 mm (f/8.3) in a brightly lit place to 8 mm (f/2.1) in the dark. The aforementioned value lessens slowly with age, older people’s eyes occasionally dilate to not more than 5-6mm.

Field of view
The approximate field of view of a person’s eye is 95° out, 75° down, 60° in, 60° up.[clarification needed] About 12-15° temporal and 1.5° beneath the horizontal is the optic nerve or blind spot that is roughly 7.5° high and 5.5° wide.

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