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Traditional optical design entails arduous, iterative stages that significantly rely on the intuition and experience of lens designers. Starting-point design selection has always been the major hurdle for most optical design problem, and different designers might produce different final lens designs even if using the same initial specification. Lens designers typically choose designs from existing lens databases, analyse relevant lens structures, or explore patent literature and technical publications. With increased processing capability, producing automated lens designs using Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches is becoming a viable alternative. Therefore, it is noteworthy that a comprehensive review addressing the latest advancements in using AI for starting-point design is still lacking. Herein, we highlight the gap at the confluence of applied AI and optical lens design, by presenting a comprehensive review of the current literature with an emphasis on using various AI approaches to generate starting-point designs for refractive optical systems, discuss the limitations, and suggest a potential alternate approach for further research.

This study employs a computational model to simulate the dynamics of tear fluid and tear film in conjunction with contact lens motion, examining the interplay between diverse contact lens characteristics—such as material, design, and dimensions—and key ocular factors like dry eye conditions, corneal size, and blink rate. These interactions are critical for customising lens fit to maximise wearer comfort. Utilising optical measurements from a single participant, the study integrates data on tear meniscus size, blink velocity, and palpebral fissure height with sixteen different contact lens parameters, including Young's modulus, thickness, diameter, and curvature. Correlation analyses were conducted to determine the impact of these parameters on the dynamics of the tear fluid and overall tear film. Results show that the diameter and Young's modulus of the contact lens significantly influence pre-lens tear film thickness, with robust, statistically significant correlations. In contrast, lens thickness and base curve showed minimal impact, as evidenced by weak and non-significant correlations. These findings underscore the critical roles of lens diameter and Young's modulus in enhancing the stability and distribution of tear fluid, thereby improving wearer comfort and advancing contact lens design.

Genetic algorithms (GAs) have a long history of over four decades. GAs are adaptive heuristic search algorithms that provide solutions for optimization and search problems. The GA derives expression from the biological terminology of natural selection, crossover, and mutation. In fact, GAs simulate the processes of natural evolution. Due to their unique simplicity, GAs are applied to the search space to find optimal solutions for various problems in science and engineering. Using GAs for lens design was investigated mostly in the 1990s, but were not fully exploited. But in the past few years, there have been a number of newer studies exploring the application of GAs or hybrid GAs in optical design. In this paper, we discuss the basic ideas behind GAs and demonstrate their application in optical lens design.

This study presents a finite element analysis to model ocular biomechanics and the interactions between the human eye and contact lenses in the closed-eye condition. The closed-eye state, where the eyelids are fully shut, presents challenges for experimental measurements due to the invasive nature of accessing and analysing the contact lens and corneal interface, making simulation tools valuable for accurate characterisation. The primary objective of this study was to examine how CLs fold and twist and their impact on the cornea when the eye is closed. The secondary aim of this study was to assess how crucial contact lens parameters (Young’s modulus, base curve, and diameter) influence corneal stress distribution and the overall fit of the lens on the eye. The findings show that increasing Young’s modulus significantly reduces corneal stress and promotes uniform stress distribution, making it the most influential factor for wearer comfort and safety. While base curve and diameter variations primarily affect contact area, their impact on stress distribution is minimal. This research provides insights for improving contact lens design and enhancing safety for contact lens wearers.

This paper presents an interactive online e-portal development and application using Shiny/R version 4.4.0 programming for personalised varifocal lens surface design and manufacturing in an agile and responsive manner. Varifocal lenses are specialised lenses that provide clear vision at both far and near distances. The user interface (UI) of the e-portal application creates an environment for customers to input their eye prescription data and geometric parameters to visualise the result of the designed freeform varifocal lens surface, which includes interactive 2D contour plots and 3D-rendered diagrams for both left and right eyes simultaneously. The e-portal provides a unified interactive platform where users can simultaneously access both the specialised Copilot demo web for lenses and the main Shiny/R version 4.4.0 programming app, ensuring seamless integration and an efficient process flow. Additionally, the data points of the 3D-designed surface are automatically saved. In order to check the performance of the designed varifocal lens before production, it is remodelled in the COMSOL Multiphysics 6.2 modelling and analysis environment. Ray tracing is built in the environment for the lens design assessment and is then integrated with the lens additive manufacturing (AM) using a Formlabs 3D printer (Digital Fabrication Center (DFC), London, UK). The results are then analysed to further validate the e-portal-driven personalised design and manufacturing approach.

The aspheric surface is a commonly used method to improve the imaging quality of the fisheye lens, but it is difficult to determine the position and initial value. Based on the wave aberration theory of the plane-symmetric optical system, a method of using an aspheric surface to design a fisheye lens is proposed, which can quickly determine the appropriate aspheric surface to improve the imaging performance. First, the wave aberration of each optical surface of the fisheye lens is calculated and its aberration characteristics are analyzed. Then, a numerical evaluation function is reported based on the aberration distribution of the fisheye lens on the image plane. According to the functional relationship between the evaluation function and the aspheric coefficient, the position of the aspheric surface and the initial value of the aspheric coefficient can be calculated. Finally, the adaptive and normalized real-coded genetic algorithm is used as the evaluation function to optimize the fisheye lens using an aspheric surface. The proposed method can provide an effective solution for designing a fisheye lens using an aspheric surface.

Novel formulas have been derived for the primary spherical aberration, coma and axial color of systems of thin lenses in contact. Even in complex optical systems, groups of lenses can be modelled as thin lenses in contact. The new mathematical formalism helps explaining significant qualitative properties of the lens design landscape.

In the past few decades, video endoscopy has become one of the primary medical devices in diverse clinical fields for examination, treatment, and early disease diagnosis of the gastrointestinal tract. For an accurate diagnosis, an endoscopic camera offering bright and wide field-of-view images is required while maintaining its compact dimensions to enter the long, narrow, and dark tract inside of the body. Recent endoscopic lenses successfully provide wide fields-of-view and have compact sizes for the system; however, their f-numbers still remain at 2.8 or higher. Therefore, further improvement in f-numbers is required to compensate for the restricted illumination system of the endoscopic probe. Here, we present a low f-number endoscopic lens design while providing wide field-of-view and high-resolution imaging. The proposed lens system achieved a low f-number of 2.2 and a field-of-view of 140 deg. The modulation transfer function (MTF) is over 20% at 180 lp/mm, and relative illumination is more than 60% in the full field. Additionally, the proposed lens is designed for a 1/4” 5-megapixel complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor with a pixel size of 1.4 µm. This all-plastic lens design could help develop a high-performance disposable endoscope that prevents the risk of infection or cross-contamination with mass manufacture and low cost.

Flat optical devices thinner than a wavelength promise to replace conventional free-space components for wavefront and polarization control. Transmissive flat lenses are particularly interesting for applications in imaging and on-chip optoelectronic integration. Several designs based on plasmonic metasurfaces, high-contrast transmitarrays and gratings have been recently implemented but have not provided a performance comparable to conventional curved lenses. Here we report polarization-insensitive, micron-thick, high-contrast transmitarray micro-lenses with focal spots as small as 0.57  λ . The measured focusing efficiency is up to 82%. A rigorous method for ultrathin lens design, and the trade-off between high efficiency and small spot size (or large numerical aperture) are discussed. The micro-lenses, composed of silicon nano-posts on glass, are fabricated in one lithographic step that could be performed with high-throughput photo or nanoimprint lithography, thus enabling widespread adoption. Replacing conventional components with flat optic devices such as flat lenses is desirable for imaging and on-chip integration, but performance has hindered their use. Here, Arbabi et al . report a wavelength-thin, high-contrast transmitarray micro-lens with a 0.57  λ focal spot and 82% focusing efficiency.

Data-driven methods to assist lens design have recently begun to emerge; in particular, under the form of lens design extrapolation to find starting points (lenses and freeform reflective system). I proposed a trip over the years to better understand why the AI have been applied first to the starting point problems and where we are going in the future.