Employing the Hough Transform to locate the optic disk.

Laser surgery of the retina has become common place to treat various retinal disorders. In this surgery therapeutic lesions are placed on the retinal surface using an argon laser. Researchers have worked over the past decade to develop the control hardware and algorithms to automate the placement of therapeutic lesions. The control algorithms compensate for retinal movement during the lesion placement process. Regions of critical vision anatomy such as the retinal vessels, the fovea, and the optic disk are identified and protected from laser irradiation. Automatic recognition of the optic disk via image processing techniques has been illusive. This paper will discuss a technique and provide results which employs the Hough Transform to identify the optic disk.