Measurement of parameters of the optic disk in ophthalmoscopic color images of human retina

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to measure some important parameters of the optic disk (or optic papilla) in ophthalmoscopic color images of human retinas. The approach consists of locating the optic disk automatically, segmenting its contour and the contour of the depression-like feature caused by glaucoma, called an excavation or cup. Then the corresponding areas are measured to calculate the ratio Cup/Disc and the relative displacement of the centroids of both regions. To achieve these objectives, noise is filtered, luminance is normalized, and a thresholding technique is used. The results obtained will aid the work of ophthalmologists by increasing the quality of automatic diagnosis of glaucoma, one of the main causes of blindness worldwide. © Springer-Verlag 2004.