A Rule based Approach for Hemorrhage Detection in Digital Fundus Photographs

Hemorrhages are one of the earliest signs of Diabetic Retinopathy, hence accurate detection of hemorrhages is crucial in an automated DR detection system. In this paper, a novel and robust rule based methodology for automated detection of hemorrhages is proposed. We present an ensemble technique for hemorrhage classification by incorporating size-based classification, color-statistic-based classification, and shape-based classification along with a novel dual step filtering approach for candidate detection. Finally, we present an experimental study carried out on DIARETDB database using the proposed method to detect and segment hemorrhages in retinal images.