A review on automatic identification of fovea in retinal fundus images

Abstract

Identification of retinal diseases is a very significant area of ophthalmology. Regular procedures are extremely specific, which rely on manual observation and highly prone to error. Hence, it is extremely fundamental to set up an automatic system for screening of vision threatening diseases like diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic maculopathy (DM). Patients who are suffering from DR are at high risk to have DM which may lead to blindness, if not detected and treated appropriately at the appropriate time. Automatic analysis of retinal images requires knowledge and the properties of anatomical structures and retinal lesions. Thus, locating fovea plays a vital role in the analysis of retinal images. In recent times image processing has become a very effective tool for the detection and analysis of abnormalities in retinal images. This survey paper depicts the fundamental terminology related to automatic detection of macula and fovea. Literature review of various methods used for finding fovea in retinal fundus images is discussed. Detection issues involved in fovea are also discussed in this paper.