Contrast sensitivity and comfort levels with different types of polarised glasses under steady glare

Abstract

The influence of various polarised glasses on visual performance is crucial due to their widespread. This study measured the visual contrast sensitivity (CS) of dominant eyes by quick contrast sensitivity function (qCSF) procedure at 10 spatial frequencies and 3 noise levels under nonglare, steady glare, steady glare with night lenses, and steady glare with day&night lenses, respectively. Later, the second experiment measured the subjects’ subjective feelings under these four viewing conditions. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the CS between the two conditions with polarised glasses and the steady glare. However, the subjects reported greater comfort with glasses than without them. These results suggest that there was an underlying bias when people rated the polarised glasses, and the qCSF procedure was a useful tool for evaluating visual performance.

PRACTITIONER SUMMARY

Whether polarised glasses can relieve the impairment of steady glare on contrast sensitivity over multi-spatial frequency and external noise levels is unaddressed. Using the quick CSF method, we revealed that CS declines with steady glare but polarised lenses don’t significantly relieve it. However, subjects reported increased comfort, suggesting a perceptual bias.

Keywords:

• Polarised glasses
• steady glare
• contrast sensitivity
• subjective feeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province of China (C2021205005), Science and Technology Project of Hebei Province of China (22556202K), Science Foundation of Hebei Normal University of China (L2022B26) and Social Science Development Project of Hebei Province of China (20220202304).