A Preliminary Investigation on Ocular Thermal Image Patterns Using Clinical Case Studies

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary investigation on thermal patterns in normal and abnormal eyes using image processing techniques on ocular thermal images acquired from clinical cases. Initially, thermal images of face are acquired from normal and abnormal volunteers and the ocular Region of Interest (ROI) is segmented. Thermal contours are then extracted from the ROI and analyzed. It is observed that the temperature distribution and thermal contours exhibit a concentric pattern in normal eyes. Whereas distinct deviation from this pattern is observed in the abnormal eyes.  The inferences obtained from the study are promising and may be instrumental in  developing a computer aided screening technique for early detection of eye abnormalities.