Hard Exudate Extraction from Fundus Images using Watershed Transform

Diabetic Retinopathy is a medical condition which affects the eyes due to increased blood sugar levels. This is characterized by presence of exudates - deposits of lipids in the posterior pole of the retina. If this ailment is not treated in earlier stages these deposits can cause blurred vision or even permanent blindness. This paper concentrates on extraction of hard exudates and optic disc from the retinal images of eyes using Marker based Watershed approach, which uses the minima imposition method to create mask and marker. The varying contrast across all the images has been taken care by a non-linear equation. Once these bright objects have been extracted from fundus images, area estimation is performed to eliminate the optic disk, thus retaining only exudates. These images have been procured from publicly available databases. Though software systems are easy to install, they prove to be expensive in terms of time and cost; thus this method has also been implemented on FPGA for an on-chip solution. The precision and sensitivity for exudate extraction sans optic disk are found to be 92.4% and 83.78% respectively.  Though other techniques exist which provide better accuracy, the method described in this paper is found to be hardware friendly in comparison with other proven methods. Few steps of the algorithm developed are implemented on FPGA to provide an embedded system approach to this work, considering the advantages of a hardware-software combination

A Rule Based Segmentation Approaches to Extract Retinal Blood Vessels in Fundus Image

The physiological structures of the retinal blood vessel are one of the key features that visible in the retinal images and contain the information associate with the anatomical abnormalities. It is accepted all over the world to judge the cardiovascular and retinal disease. To avoid the risk of visual impairment, appropriate vessel segmentation is mandatory. Here has proposed a segmentation algorithm that efficiently extracts the blood vessels from the retinal fundus image. The proposed segmentation algorithm is performed Lab and Principle Component (PC) based gray level conversion, Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), morphological operations, Local Property-Based Pixel Correction (LPBPC). For appropriate detection proposed vessels correction algorithm LPBPC that check the feature of the vessels and remove the wrong vessel detection. To measure the appropriateness of the proposed algorithm, the experimental results are compared with the corresponding ground truth images. The experimental results have shown that the proposed blood vessel algorithm is more accurate than the existing algorithms

Retinal Fundus Image Analysis for Diagnosis of Glaucoma: A Comprehensive Survey

© 2016 IEEE. The rapid development of digital imaging and computer vision has increased the potential of using the image processing technologies in ophthalmology. Image processing systems are used in standard clinical practices with the development of medical diagnostic systems. The retinal images provide vital information about the health of the sensory part of the visual system. Retinal diseases, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, Stargardt's disease, and retinopathy of prematurity, can lead to blindness manifest as artifacts in the retinal image. An automated system can be used for offering standardized large-scale screening at a lower cost, which may reduce human errors, provide services to remote areas, as well as free from observer bias and fatigue. Treatment for retinal diseases is available; the challenge lies in finding a cost-effective approach with high sensitivity and specificity that can be applied to large populations in a timely manner to identify those who are at risk at the early stages of the disease. The progress of the glaucoma disease is very often quiet in the early stages. The number of people affected has been increasing and patients are seldom aware of the disease, which can cause delay in the treatment. A review of how computer-aided approaches may be applied in the diagnosis and staging of glaucoma is discussed here. The current status of the computer technology is reviewed, covering localization and segmentation of the optic nerve head, pixel level glaucomatic changes, diagonosis using 3-D data sets, and artificial neural networks for detecting the progression of the glaucoma disease

Deep Learning based Novel Anomaly Detection Methods for Diabetic Retinopathy Screening

Programa Oficial de Doutoramento en Computación. 5009V01[Abstract] Computer-Aided Screening (CAS) systems are getting popularity in disease diagnosis. Modern CAS systems exploit data driven machine learning algorithms including supervised and unsupervised methods. In medical imaging, annotating pathological samples are much harder and time consuming work than healthy samples. Therefore, there is always an abundance of healthy samples and scarcity of annotated and labelled pathological samples. Unsupervised anomaly detection algorithms can be implemented for the development of CAS system using the largely available healthy samples, especially when disease/nodisease decision is important for screening. This thesis proposes unsupervised machine learning methodologies for anomaly detection in retinal fundus images. A novel patchbased image reconstructor architecture for DR detection is presented, that addresses the shortcomings of standard autoencoders-based reconstructors. Furthermore, a full-size image based anomaly map generation methodology is presented, where the potential DR lesions can be visualized at the pixel-level. Afterwards, a novel methodology is proposed to extend the patch-based architecture to a fully-convolutional architecture for one-shot full-size image reconstruction. Finally, a novel methodology for supervised DR classification is proposed that utilizes the anomaly maps

Detection of Early Signs of Diabetic Retinopathy Based on Textural and Morphological Information in Fundus Images

[EN] Estimated blind people in the world will exceed 40 million by 2025. To develop novel algorithms based on fundus image descriptors that allow the automatic classification of retinal tissue into healthy and pathological in early stages is necessary. In this paper, we focus on one of the most common pathologies in the current society: diabetic retinopathy. The proposed method avoids the necessity of lesion segmentation or candidate map generation before the classification stage. Local binary patterns and granulometric profiles are locally computed to extract texture and morphological information from retinal images. Different combinations of this information feed classification algorithms to optimally discriminate bright and dark lesions from healthy tissues. Through several experiments, the ability of the proposed system to identify diabetic retinopathy signs is validated using different public databases with a large degree of variability and without image exclusion.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project DPI2016-77869 and GVA through project PROMETEO/2019/109Colomer, A.; Igual García, J.; Naranjo Ornedo, V. (2020). Detection of Early Signs of Diabetic Retinopathy Based on Textural and Morphological Information in Fundus Images. Sensors. 20(4):1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20041005S120204World Report on Vision. Technical Report, 2019https://www.who.int/publications-detail/world-report-on-visionFong, D. S., Aiello, L., Gardner, T. W., King, G. L., Blankenship, G., Cavallerano, J. D., … Klein, R. (2003). Retinopathy in Diabetes. Diabetes Care, 27(Supplement 1), S84-S87. doi:10.2337/diacare.27.2007.s84COGAN, D. G. (1961). Retinal Vascular Patterns. Archives of Ophthalmology, 66(3), 366. doi:10.1001/archopht.1961.00960010368014Wilkinson, C. ., Ferris, F. L., Klein, R. E., Lee, P. P., Agardh, C. D., Davis, M., … Verdaguer, J. T. (2003). Proposed international clinical diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema disease severity scales. Ophthalmology, 110(9), 1677-1682. doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(03)00475-5Universal Eye Health: A Global Action Plan 2014–2019. Technical Reporthttps://www.who.int/blindness/actionplan/en/Salamat, N., Missen, M. M. S., & Rashid, A. (2019). Diabetic retinopathy techniques in retinal images: A review. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 97, 168-188. doi:10.1016/j.artmed.2018.10.009Qureshi, I., Ma, J., & Shaheed, K. (2019). A Hybrid Proposed Fundus Image Enhancement Framework for Diabetic Retinopathy. Algorithms, 12(1), 14. doi:10.3390/a12010014Morales, S., Engan, K., Naranjo, V., & Colomer, A. (2017). Retinal Disease Screening Through Local Binary Patterns. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 21(1), 184-192. doi:10.1109/jbhi.2015.2490798Asiri, N., Hussain, M., Al Adel, F., & Alzaidi, N. (2019). Deep learning based computer-aided diagnosis systems for diabetic retinopathy: A survey. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 99, 101701. doi:10.1016/j.artmed.2019.07.009Gulshan, V., Peng, L., Coram, M., Stumpe, M. C., Wu, D., Narayanaswamy, A., … Webster, D. R. (2016). Development and Validation of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy in Retinal Fundus Photographs. JAMA, 316(22), 2402. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.17216Prentašić, P., & Lončarić, S. (2016). Detection of exudates in fundus photographs using deep neural networks and anatomical landmark detection fusion. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 137, 281-292. doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2016.09.018Costa, P., Galdran, A., Meyer, M. I., Niemeijer, M., Abramoff, M., Mendonca, A. M., & Campilho, A. (2018). End-to-End Adversarial Retinal Image Synthesis. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 37(3), 781-791. doi:10.1109/tmi.2017.2759102De la Torre, J., Valls, A., & Puig, D. (2020). A deep learning interpretable classifier for diabetic retinopathy disease grading. Neurocomputing, 396, 465-476. doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2018.07.102Diaz-Pinto, A., Colomer, A., Naranjo, V., Morales, S., Xu, Y., & Frangi, A. F. (2019). Retinal Image Synthesis and Semi-Supervised Learning for Glaucoma Assessment. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 38(9), 2211-2218. doi:10.1109/tmi.2019.2903434Walter, T., Klein, J., Massin, P., & Erginay, A. (2002). A contribution of image processing to the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy-detection of exudates in color fundus images of the human retina. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 21(10), 1236-1243. doi:10.1109/tmi.2002.806290Welfer, D., Scharcanski, J., & Marinho, D. R. (2010). A coarse-to-fine strategy for automatically detecting exudates in color eye fundus images. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 34(3), 228-235. doi:10.1016/j.compmedimag.2009.10.001Mookiah, M. R. K., Acharya, U. R., Martis, R. J., Chua, C. K., Lim, C. M., Ng, E. Y. K., & Laude, A. (2013). Evolutionary algorithm based classifier parameter tuning for automatic diabetic retinopathy grading: A hybrid feature extraction approach. Knowledge-Based Systems, 39, 9-22. doi:10.1016/j.knosys.2012.09.008Zhang, X., Thibault, G., Decencière, E., Marcotegui, B., Laÿ, B., Danno, R., … Erginay, A. (2014). Exudate detection in color retinal images for mass screening of diabetic retinopathy. Medical Image Analysis, 18(7), 1026-1043. doi:10.1016/j.media.2014.05.004Sopharak, A., Uyyanonvara, B., Barman, S., & Williamson, T. H. (2008). Automatic detection of diabetic retinopathy exudates from non-dilated retinal images using mathematical morphology methods. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 32(8), 720-727. doi:10.1016/j.compmedimag.2008.08.009Giancardo, L., Meriaudeau, F., Karnowski, T. P., Li, Y., Garg, S., Tobin, K. W., & Chaum, E. (2012). Exudate-based diabetic macular edema detection in fundus images using publicly available datasets. Medical Image Analysis, 16(1), 216-226. doi:10.1016/j.media.2011.07.004Amel, F., Mohammed, M., & Abdelhafid, B. (2012). Improvement of the Hard Exudates Detection Method Used For Computer- Aided Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy. International Journal of Image, Graphics and Signal Processing, 4(4), 19-27. doi:10.5815/ijigsp.2012.04.03Usman Akram, M., Khalid, S., Tariq, A., Khan, S. A., & Azam, F. (2014). Detection and classification of retinal lesions for grading of diabetic retinopathy. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 45, 161-171. doi:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2013.11.014Akram, M. U., Tariq, A., Khan, S. A., & Javed, M. Y. (2014). Automated detection of exudates and macula for grading of diabetic macular edema. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 114(2), 141-152. doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2014.01.010Quellec, G., Lamard, M., Abràmoff, M. D., Decencière, E., Lay, B., Erginay, A., … Cazuguel, G. (2012). A multiple-instance learning framework for diabetic retinopathy screening. Medical Image Analysis, 16(6), 1228-1240. doi:10.1016/j.media.2012.06.003Decencière, E., Cazuguel, G., Zhang, X., Thibault, G., Klein, J.-C., Meyer, F., … Chabouis, A. (2013). TeleOphta: Machine learning and image processing methods for teleophthalmology. IRBM, 34(2), 196-203. doi:10.1016/j.irbm.2013.01.010Abràmoff, M. D., Folk, J. C., Han, D. P., Walker, J. D., Williams, D. F., Russell, S. R., … Niemeijer, M. (2013). Automated Analysis of Retinal Images for Detection of Referable Diabetic Retinopathy. JAMA Ophthalmology, 131(3), 351. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2013.1743Almotiri, J., Elleithy, K., & Elleithy, A. (2018). Retinal Vessels Segmentation Techniques and Algorithms: A Survey. Applied Sciences, 8(2), 155. doi:10.3390/app8020155Thakur, N., & Juneja, M. (2018). Survey on segmentation and classification approaches of optic cup and optic disc for diagnosis of glaucoma. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 42, 162-189. doi:10.1016/j.bspc.2018.01.014Bertalmio, M., Sapiro, G., Caselles, V., & Ballester, C. (2000). Image inpainting. Proceedings of the 27th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH ’00. doi:10.1145/344779.344972Qureshi, M. A., Deriche, M., Beghdadi, A., & Amin, A. (2017). A critical survey of state-of-the-art image inpainting quality assessment metrics. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, 49, 177-191. doi:10.1016/j.jvcir.2017.09.006Colomer, A., Naranjo, V., Engan, K., & Skretting, K. (2017). Assessment of sparse-based inpainting for retinal vessel removal. Signal Processing: Image Communication, 59, 73-82. doi:10.1016/j.image.2017.03.018Morales, S., Naranjo, V., Angulo, J., & Alcaniz, M. (2013). Automatic Detection of Optic Disc Based on PCA and Mathematical Morphology. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 32(4), 786-796. doi:10.1109/tmi.2013.2238244Ojala, T., Pietikäinen, M., & Harwood, D. (1996). A comparative study of texture measures with classification based on featured distributions. Pattern Recognition, 29(1), 51-59. doi:10.1016/0031-3203(95)00067-4Ojala, T., Pietikainen, M., & Maenpaa, T. (2002). Multiresolution gray-scale and rotation invariant texture classification with local binary patterns. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 24(7), 971-987. doi:10.1109/tpami.2002.1017623Breiman, L. (2001). Machine Learning, 45(1), 5-32. doi:10.1023/a:1010933404324Chang, C.-C., & Lin, C.-J. (2011). LIBSVM. ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, 2(3), 1-27. doi:10.1145/1961189.1961199Tapia, S. L., Molina, R., & de la Blanca, N. P. (2016). Detection and localization of objects in Passive Millimeter Wave Images. 2016 24th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO). doi:10.1109/eusipco.2016.7760619Jin Huang, & Ling, C. X. (2005). Using AUC and accuracy in evaluating learning algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 17(3), 299-310. doi:10.1109/tkde.2005.50Prati, R. C., Batista, G. E. A. P. A., & Monard, M. C. (2011). A Survey on Graphical Methods for Classification Predictive Performance Evaluation. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 23(11), 1601-1618. doi:10.1109/tkde.2011.59Mandrekar, J. N. (2010). Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve in Diagnostic Test Assessment. Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 5(9), 1315-1316. doi:10.1097/jto.0b013e3181ec173dRocha, A., Carvalho, T., Jelinek, H. F., Goldenstein, S., & Wainer, J. (2012). Points of Interest and Visual Dictionaries for Automatic Retinal Lesion Detection. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 59(8), 2244-2253. doi:10.1109/tbme.2012.2201717Júnior, S. B., & Welfer, D. (2013). Automatic Detection of Microaneurysms and Hemorrhages in Color Eye Fundus Images. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, 5(5), 21-37. doi:10.5121/ijcsit.2013.550

Fundus image analysis for automatic screening of ophthalmic pathologies

En los ultimos años el número de casos de ceguera se ha reducido significativamente. A pesar de este hecho, la Organización Mundial de la Salud estima que un 80% de los casos de pérdida de visión (285 millones en 2010) pueden ser evitados si se diagnostican en sus estadios más tempranos y son tratados de forma efectiva. Para cumplir esta propuesta se pretende que los servicios de atención primaria incluyan un seguimiento oftalmológico de sus pacientes así como fomentar campañas de cribado en centros proclives a reunir personas de alto riesgo. Sin embargo, estas soluciones exigen una alta carga de trabajo de personal experto entrenado en el análisis de los patrones anómalos propios de cada enfermedad. Por lo tanto, el desarrollo de algoritmos para la creación de sistemas de cribado automáticos juga un papel vital en este campo. La presente tesis persigue la identificacion automática del daño retiniano provocado por dos de las patologías más comunes en la sociedad actual: la retinopatía diabética (RD) y la degenaración macular asociada a la edad (DMAE). Concretamente, el objetivo final de este trabajo es el desarrollo de métodos novedosos basados en la extracción de características de la imagen de fondo de ojo y clasificación para discernir entre tejido sano y patológico. Además, en este documento se proponen algoritmos de pre-procesado con el objetivo de normalizar la alta variabilidad existente en las bases de datos publicas de imagen de fondo de ojo y eliminar la contribución de ciertas estructuras retinianas que afectan negativamente en la detección del daño retiniano. A diferencia de la mayoría de los trabajos existentes en el estado del arte sobre detección de patologías en imagen de fondo de ojo, los métodos propuestos a lo largo de este manuscrito evitan la necesidad de segmentación de las lesiones o la generación de un mapa de candidatos antes de la fase de clasificación. En este trabajo, Local binary patterns, perfiles granulométricos y la dimensión fractal se aplican de manera local para extraer información de textura, morfología y tortuosidad de la imagen de fondo de ojo. Posteriormente, esta información se combina de diversos modos formando vectores de características con los que se entrenan avanzados métodos de clasificación formulados para discriminar de manera óptima entre exudados, microaneurismas, hemorragias y tejido sano. Mediante diversos experimentos, se valida la habilidad del sistema propuesto para identificar los signos más comunes de la RD y DMAE. Para ello se emplean bases de datos públicas con un alto grado de variabilidad sin exlcuir ninguna imagen. Además, la presente tesis también cubre aspectos básicos del paradigma de deep learning. Concretamente, se presenta un novedoso método basado en redes neuronales convolucionales (CNNs). La técnica de transferencia de conocimiento se aplica mediante el fine-tuning de las arquitecturas de CNNs más importantes en el estado del arte. La detección y localización de exudados mediante redes neuronales se lleva a cabo en los dos últimos experimentos de esta tesis doctoral. Cabe destacar que los resultados obtenidos mediante la extracción de características "manual" y posterior clasificación se comparan de forma objetiva con las predicciones obtenidas por el mejor modelo basado en CNNs. Los prometedores resultados obtenidos en esta tesis y el bajo coste y portabilidad de las cámaras de adquisión de imagen de retina podrían facilitar la incorporación de los algoritmos desarrollados en este trabajo en un sistema de cribado automático que ayude a los especialistas en la detección de patrones anomálos característicos de las dos enfermedades bajo estudio: RD y DMAE.In last years, the number of blindness cases has been significantly reduced. Despite this promising news, the World Health Organisation estimates that 80% of visual impairment (285 million cases in 2010) could be avoided if diagnosed and treated early. To accomplish this purpose, eye care services need to be established in primary health and screening campaigns should be a common task in centres with people at risk. However, these solutions entail a high workload for trained experts in the analysis of the anomalous patterns of each eye disease. Therefore, the development of algorithms for automatic screening system plays a vital role in this field. This thesis focuses on the automatic identification of the retinal damage provoked by two of the most common pathologies in the current society: diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Specifically, the final goal of this work is to develop novel methods, based on fundus image description and classification, to characterise the healthy and abnormal tissue in the retina background. In addition, pre-processing algorithms are proposed with the aim of normalising the high variability of fundus images and removing the contribution of some retinal structures that could hinder in the retinal damage detection. In contrast to the most of the state-of-the-art works in damage detection using fundus images, the methods proposed throughout this manuscript avoid the necessity of lesion segmentation or the candidate map generation before the classification stage. Local binary patterns, granulometric profiles and fractal dimension are locally computed to extract texture, morphological and roughness information from retinal images. Different combinations of this information feed advanced classification algorithms formulated to optimally discriminate exudates, microaneurysms, haemorrhages and healthy tissues. Through several experiments, the ability of the proposed system to identify DR and AMD signs is validated using different public databases with a large degree of variability and without image exclusion. Moreover, this thesis covers the basics of the deep learning paradigm. In particular, a novel approach based on convolutional neural networks is explored. The transfer learning technique is applied to fine-tune the most important state-of-the-art CNN architectures. Exudate detection and localisation tasks using neural networks are carried out in the last two experiments of this thesis. An objective comparison between the hand-crafted feature extraction and classification process and the prediction models based on CNNs is established. The promising results of this PhD thesis and the affordable cost and portability of retinal cameras could facilitate the further incorporation of the developed algorithms in a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system to help specialists in the accurate detection of anomalous patterns characteristic of the two diseases under study: DR and AMD.En els últims anys el nombre de casos de ceguera s'ha reduït significativament. A pesar d'este fet, l'Organització Mundial de la Salut estima que un 80% dels casos de pèrdua de visió (285 milions en 2010) poden ser evitats si es diagnostiquen en els seus estadis més primerencs i són tractats de forma efectiva. Per a complir esta proposta es pretén que els servicis d'atenció primària incloguen un seguiment oftalmològic dels seus pacients així com fomentar campanyes de garbellament en centres regentats per persones d'alt risc. No obstant això, estes solucions exigixen una alta càrrega de treball de personal expert entrenat en l'anàlisi dels patrons anòmals propis de cada malaltia. Per tant, el desenrotllament d'algoritmes per a la creació de sistemes de garbellament automàtics juga un paper vital en este camp. La present tesi perseguix la identificació automàtica del dany retiniano provocat per dos de les patologies més comunes en la societat actual: la retinopatia diabètica (RD) i la degenaración macular associada a l'edat (DMAE) . Concretament, l'objectiu final d'este treball és el desenrotllament de mètodes novedodos basats en l'extracció de característiques de la imatge de fons d'ull i classificació per a discernir entre teixit sa i patològic. A més, en este document es proposen algoritmes de pre- processat amb l'objectiu de normalitzar l'alta variabilitat existent en les bases de dades publiques d'imatge de fons d'ull i eliminar la contribució de certes estructures retinianas que afecten negativament en la detecció del dany retiniano. A diferència de la majoria dels treballs existents en l'estat de l'art sobre detecció de patologies en imatge de fons d'ull, els mètodes proposats al llarg d'este manuscrit eviten la necessitat de segmentació de les lesions o la generació d'un mapa de candidats abans de la fase de classificació. En este treball, Local binary patterns, perfils granulometrics i la dimensió fractal s'apliquen de manera local per a extraure informació de textura, morfologia i tortuositat de la imatge de fons d'ull. Posteriorment, esta informació es combina de diversos modes formant vectors de característiques amb els que s'entrenen avançats mètodes de classificació formulats per a discriminar de manera òptima entre exsudats, microaneurismes, hemorràgies i teixit sa. Per mitjà de diversos experiments, es valida l'habilitat del sistema proposat per a identificar els signes més comuns de la RD i DMAE. Per a això s'empren bases de dades públiques amb un alt grau de variabilitat sense exlcuir cap imatge. A més, la present tesi també cobrix aspectes bàsics del paradigma de deep learning. Concretament, es presenta un nou mètode basat en xarxes neuronals convolucionales (CNNs) . La tècnica de transferencia de coneixement s'aplica per mitjà del fine-tuning de les arquitectures de CNNs més importants en l'estat de l'art. La detecció i localització d'exudats per mitjà de xarxes neuronals es du a terme en els dos últims experiments d'esta tesi doctoral. Cal destacar que els resultats obtinguts per mitjà de l'extracció de característiques "manual" i posterior classificació es comparen de forma objectiva amb les prediccions obtingudes pel millor model basat en CNNs. Els prometedors resultats obtinguts en esta tesi i el baix cost i portabilitat de les cambres d'adquisión d'imatge de retina podrien facilitar la incorporació dels algoritmes desenrotllats en este treball en un sistema de garbellament automàtic que ajude als especialistes en la detecció de patrons anomálos característics de les dos malalties baix estudi: RD i DMAE.Colomer Granero, A. (2018). Fundus image analysis for automatic screening of ophthalmic pathologies [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/99745TESI

Change blindness: eradication of gestalt strategies

Arrays of eight, texture-defined rectangles were used as stimuli in a one-shot change blindness (CB) task where there was a 50% chance that one rectangle would change orientation between two successive presentations separated by an interval. CB was eliminated by cueing the target rectangle in the first stimulus, reduced by cueing in the interval and unaffected by cueing in the second presentation. This supports the idea that a representation was formed that persisted through the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43149–164]. Another possibility is that participants used some kind of grouping or Gestalt strategy. To test this we changed the spatial position of the rectangles in the second presentation by shifting them along imaginary spokes (by ±1 degree) emanating from the central fixation point. There was no significant difference seen in performance between this and the standard task [F(1,4)=2.565, p=0.185]. This may suggest two things: (i) Gestalt grouping is not used as a strategy in these tasks, and (ii) it gives further weight to the argument that objects may be stored and retrieved from a pre-attentional store during this task

A Multi-Anatomical Retinal Structure Segmentation System For Automatic Eye Screening Using Morphological Adaptive Fuzzy Thresholding

Eye exam can be as efficacious as physical one in determining health concerns. Retina screening can be the very first clue to detecting a variety of hidden health issues including pre-diabetes and diabetes. Through the process of clinical diagnosis and prognosis; ophthalmologists rely heavily on the binary segmented version of retina fundus image; where the accuracy of segmented vessels, optic disc and abnormal lesions extremely affects the diagnosis accuracy which in turn affect the subsequent clinical treatment steps. This thesis proposes an automated retinal fundus image segmentation system composed of three segmentation subsystems follow same core segmentation algorithm. Despite of broad difference in features and characteristics; retinal vessels, optic disc and exudate lesions are extracted by each subsystem without the need for texture analysis or synthesis. For sake of compact diagnosis and complete clinical insight, our proposed system can detect these anatomical structures in one session with high accuracy even in pathological retina images. The proposed system uses a robust hybrid segmentation algorithm combines adaptive fuzzy thresholding and mathematical morphology. The proposed system is validated using four benchmark datasets: DRIVE and STARE (vessels), DRISHTI-GS (optic disc), and DIARETDB1 (exudates lesions). Competitive segmentation performance is achieved, outperforming a variety of up-to-date systems and demonstrating the capacity to deal with other heterogenous anatomical structures