Comparative analysis of some modeal reconstruction methods of the cornea from corneal elevation data

Purpose. A comparative study of the ability of some modal schemes to reproduce corneal shapes of varying complexity is performed, using both standard radial polynomials and the radial basis functions (RBF). Our claim is that the correct approach in the case of highly irregular corneas should combine several bases. Methods. Standard approaches of reconstruction by Zernike and other types of radial polynomials are compared with the discrete least squares fit (LSF) by the RBF in three theoretical surfaces, synthetically generated by computer algorithms in the lack of measurement noise. For the reconstruction by polynomials the maximal radial order 6 was chosen, which corresponds to the first 28 Zernike polynomials or the first 49 Bhatia-Wolf polynomials. The fit with the RBF has been carried out using a regular grid of centers. Results. The quality of fit was assessed by computing for each surface the mean square errors (MSE) of the reconstruction by LSF, measured at the same nodes where the heights were collected. Another criterion of the fitting quality used was the accuracy in recovery of the Zernike coefficients, especially in the case of incomplete data. Conclusions. The Zernike (and especially, the Bhatia-Wolf) polynomials constitute a reliable reconstruction method of a non-severely aberrated surface with a small surface regularity index (SRI). However, they fail to capture small deformations of the anterior surface of a synthetic cornea. The most promising is a combined approach that balances the robustness of the Zernike fit with the localization of the RBF