How The Eye Works
Video: Introduction to the Eye
Our ophthalmologists compare the function of our eyes to a camera. Like the eye, a camera creates images by focusing on an object and allowing specific amounts of light to pass through a hole that creates a visual impression on film. In vision, light enters the cornea, much like a camera lens, and is focused.
Next, the light passes through the pupil where the iris works as an aperture to adjust the amount of light allowed to enter. Light then enters the lens where the remaining focus is achieved. The shape of the lens can adjust (either thinner or thicker) by tensing or relaxing the muscles of the eye.
The final destination of this focused light is the retina, which functions as film and converts the light into a signal using the cells, called rods and cones. These signals travel to the brain where, in essence, the film is developed into an image - giving the miracle of sight.
