Mapping the human retina

The new therapeutic method of scotoma-based photocoagulation (SBP) developed at the Vienna Eye Clinic for diagnosis and treatment of age-related macular degeneration requires retinal maps from scanning laser ophthalmoscope images. This paper describes in detail all necessary image analysis steps for map generation. A prototype software system for fully automatic map generation has been implemented and tested on a representative dataset selected from a clinical study with 50 patients. The map required for the SBP treatment can be reliably extracted in all cases. Thus, algorithms presented in this paper should be directly applicable in daily clinical routine without major modifications.