Estimating 3D topographic map of optic nerve head from a single fundus image

Optic nerve head also called optic disc is the distal portion of optic nerve locating and clinically visible on the retinal surface. It is a 3 dimensional elliptical shaped structure with a central depression called the optic cup. This shape of the ONH and the size of the depression can be varied due to different retinopathy or angiopathy, therefore the estimation of topography of optic nerve head is significant for assisting diagnosis of those retinal related complications. This work describes a computer vision based method, i.e. shape from shading (SFS) to recover and visualize 3D topographic map of optic nerve head from a normal fundus image. The work is expected helpful for assessing those complications associated the deformation of optic nerve head such as glaucoma and diabetes. The illumination is modelled as uniform over the area around optic nerve head and its direction estimated from the available image. The Tsai discrete method has been employed to recover the 3D topographic map of the optic nerve head. The initial experimental result demonstrates our approach works on most of fundus images and provides a cheap, but good alternation for rendering and visualizing the topographic information of the optic nerve head for potential clinical use.