Automatic detection of microaneurysms in color fundus images of the human retina by means of the bounding box closing

In this paper we propose a new algorithm for the detection of microaneurysms in color fundus images of the human retina. Microaneurysms are the first unequivocal indication of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), a severe and wide-spread eye disease. Their automatic detection may play a major role in computer assisted diagnosis of DR. We propose an algorithm that can be divided into four steps. The first step is an image enhancement technique that comprises normalization and noise reduction. The second step ist the extraction of small details that fulfill a certain criterion: This leads to the definition of the bounding box closing. Then, an automatic threshold depending on image quality is calculated. In the last step false positives are eliminated.