Retinal Vessel Extraction with the Image Ray Transform

Extraction of blood vessels within the retina is an important task that can help in detecting a number of diseases, including diabetic retinopathy. Current techniques achieve good, but not perfect performance and this suggests that improved preprocessing may be needed. The image ray transform is a method to highlight tubular features (such as blood vessels) based upon an analogy to light rays. The transform has been employed to enhance retinal images from the DRIVE database, and a simple classification technique has been used to show the potential of the transform as a preprocessor for other supervised learning techniques. Results also suggest potential for using the ray transform to detect other features in the fundus images, such as the fovea and optic disc.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: ISVC
• Authors: Alastair H. Cummings, Mark S. Nixon
• Keywords: Applied Computing, Blood Vessels, Images, ISVC 2010, Simple Classification Technique