OPTICAL NERVE SEGMENTATION USING THE ACTIVE SHAPE METHOD

The paper deals with the segmentation procedure for optical nerve localization and the consequent determination of geometrical parameters such as optical nerve area, radius and diameter. An extraction of these geometrical parameters is especially important for clinical practice particularly in the case where retinal lesions are present. On the base of the optical nerve extraction, we are capable of comparing it with area of retinal lesions. Via this approach it is possible to track time evaluation of retinal lesions. The proposed algorithm for segmentation of optical nerve area is performed within two main steps. In the first step, the active contour method is used specially for the localization of the optical nerve. This part of the algorithm generates mathematical model of the optical nerve in binary form. Consequently, on the base of this mathematical model of the optical nerve respective geometrical parameters are worked out for future comparison with retinal lesions. Image preprocessing is an integral part of the segmentation procedure, improving the observability of the optical nerve to ensure as relevant detection of the optical nerve as possible.