A quantum mechanics-based algorithm for vessel segmentation in retinal images

Blood vessel segmentation is an important step in retinal image analysis. It is one of the steps required for computer-aided detection of ophthalmic diseases. In this paper, a novel quantum mechanics-based algorithm for retinal vessel segmentation is presented. The algorithm consists of three major steps. The first step is the preprocessing of the images to prepare the images for further processing. The second step is feature extraction where a set of four features is generated at each image pixel. These features are then combined using a nonlinear transformation for dimensionality reduction. The final step is applying a recently proposed quantum mechanics-based framework for image processing. In this step, pixels are mapped to quantum systems that are allowed to evolve from an initial state to a final state governed by Schrodinger's equation. The evolution is controlled by the Hamiltonian operator which is a function of the extracted features at each pixel. A measurement step is consequently performed to determine whether the pixel belongs to vessel or non-vessel classes. Many functional forms of the Hamiltonian are proposed, and the best performing form was selected. The algorithm is tested on the publicly available DRIVE database. The average results for sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy are 80.29, 97.34, and 95.83 %, respectively. These results are compared to some recently published techniques showing the superior performance of the proposed method. Finally, the implementation of the algorithm on a quantum computer and the challenges facing this implementation are introduced.