Computer-aided cataract detection using enhanced texture features on retro-illumination lens images

Cataract is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Computer-aided cataract detection is two-fold significant. Firstly, it will be helpful in mass screening. Secondly, it can be used as the preprocessing step for computer-aided grading. In this paper, the enhanced texture feature is proposed based on the graders´ expertise of cataract and the characteristics of the retro-illumination lens images. The statistics of the enhanced texture feature is used to train the linear discriminant analysis to detect the cataract. The accuracy of 84.8% is achieved on a clinical database that contains 4545 pairs of images. It demonstrates that the proposed method is promising for mass screening and as the preprocessing step for computer-aided grading.