Performance Enhancement of Optic Disc Boundary Detection using Active Contours via Improved Homogenization of Optic Disc Region

Accurate segmentation of optic disc (OD) in retinal images is of critical importance in diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). The accuracy of OD boundary detection using active contours is based on homogeneity of OD region. In this work we improve upon active contour model segmentation of OD from morphologically preprocessed fundus image in the Lab color space. The key contribution presented here is a procedure which completely homogenizes OD region. After removal of nerves, this procedure consists of using b component of Lab color space as against L component, followed by shade correction and contrast enhancement. Results indicate significant improvement in accuracy and performance of OD boundary detection.