METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AUTOMATIC LOCATION OF OPTIC STRUCTURES IN AN IMAGE OF AN EYE, AND FOR AUTOMATIC RETINA CUP-TO-DISC RATIO COMPUTATION

摘要

A method is proposed for automatically locating the optic disc or the optic cup in an image of the rear of an eye. A portion of the image containing the optic disc or optic cup is divided into sub-regions using a clustering algorithm. Biologically inspired features, and optionally other features, are obtained for each of the sub-regions. An adaptive model uses the features to generate data indicative of whether each sub-region is within or outside the optic disc or optic cup. The result is then smoothed, to form an estimate of the position of the optic disc or optic cup.

主权项

1. Amended) A method of locating within an image of an eye an outline of an anatomical optic structure, said anatomical optic structure being the optic disc of the eye or the optic cup of the eye, the method comprising:
(i) dividing a portion of the image of the eye into a plurality of sub-regions, each sub-region being a respective set of a plurality of pixels of the portion of the image; (ii) subjecting the portion of the image to respective processing operations, to generate a plurality of feature maps; (iii) for each sub-region, deriving a plurality of numerical measures using the feature maps; (iv) using the plurality of numerical measures and an adaptive model, to produce data indicative of which of the sub-regions of the image are respectively part of, or not part of, said optic structure; and (v) performing at least one smoothing operation to obtain the outline of said optic structure using the data.