An efficient automated algorithm to detect ocular surface temperature on sequence of thermograms using snake and target tracing function.

Functional infrared (IR) imaging is widely adopted in medical field nowadays, with more emphasis on breast cancer and ocular abnormalities. In this article, an algorithm is presented to accurately locate the eye and cornea in ocular thermographic sequences, which were recorded utilizing functional infrared imaging. The localization is achieved by snake algorithm coupled with a newly proposed target tracing function. The target tracing function enables automated localization, allows the absence of any manual assistance before the algorithm runs. Genetic algorithm is used to perform the search for global minimum on the function to produce desired localization. On all the cases we have studied, in average the region encircled by the algorithm covers 92% of the true ocular region. As for the non-ocular region covered, it only accounts for less than 5% of the encircled region.