Retinal image analysis: preprocessing and feature extraction

Image processing, analysis and computer vision techniques are found today in all fields of medical science. These techniques are especially relevant to modern ophthalmology, a field heavily dependent on visual data. Retinal images are widely used for diagnostic purposes by ophthalmologists. However, these images often need visual enhancement prior to apply a digital analysis for pathological risk or damage detection. In this work we propose the use of an image enhancement technique for the compensation of non-uniform contrast and luminosity distribution in retinal images. We also explore optic nerve head segmentation by means of color mathematical morphology and the use of active contours.