Robust optic disc location via combination of weak detectors

This paper presents a new robust approach for the automatic location of the optic disc. We detect several candidates independently for optic disc, macula and the main blood vessels (arcades). Candidates are sorted by reliability. The space of all possible triplets disc-macula-arcades is searched using a-priori anatomical knowledge, selecting the triplet formed by the most reliable candidates satisfying anatomical constraints best. This triplet includes the best optic disc location. The approach was tested using the well-known STARE data set (81 images: 31 healthy retinas and 50 containing pathological lesions of various types and severity) and 20 wide-field-of-view scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) images acquired with an OPTOS instrument. We achieved 91.4% detection rate in the STARE data set and 100% in the OPTOS data set.