Effect of ophthalmic filter thickness on predicted monocular dichromatic luminance and chromaticity discrimination.

The majority of ophthalmic filters, whether they be in the form of spectacles or contact lenses, are absorbance type filters. Although color vision researchers routinely provide spectrophotometric transmission profiles of filters, filter thickness is rarely specified. In this paper, colorimetric tools and volume color theory are used to show that the color of a filter as well as its physical properties are altered dramatically by changes in thickness. The effect of changes in X-Chrom filter thickness on predicted monocular dichromatic luminance and chromaticity discrimination is presented.