Using MAS to detect retinal blood vessels

The segmentation of retinal vasculature by color fundus images analysis is crucial for several medical diagnostic systems, such as the diabetic retinopathy early diagnosis. Several interesting approaches have been done in this field but the obtained results need to be improved. We propose therefore a new approach based on an organization of agents. This multi-agent approach is preceded by a preprocessing phase in which the fundamental filter is an improved version of the Kirsch derivative. This first phase allows the construction of an environment where the agents are situated and interact. Then, edges detection emerged from agents’ interaction. With this study, competitive results as compared with those present in the literature were achieved and it seems that a very efficient system for the diabetic retinopathy diagnosis could be built using MAS mechanisms.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT