Apparatus for detecting bubbles in coverslip adhesive
First Claim
1. A bubble mapper apparatus comprising:
- (a) imaging means for capturing an image of a slide to obtain a representation of the image;
(b) means for detecting bubble edges from images to generate a bubble edge output;
(c) dilation means for dilating the bubble edge output to generate a dilated bubble edge map;
(d) means for connected component analysis on the dilated bubble edge map to produce a labeled bubble map;
(e) means for horizontal and vertical filling the labeled bubble map to produce a binary bubble map; and
(f) erosion means for eroding the binary bubble map to produce a final bubble map.
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Abstract
The detection of bubbles in coverslip adhesive. Bubbles in coverslip adhesive may span large areas of the coverslip. An automated cytology system acquires 4 x gray scale images of the slide. Image conditioning is then performed. The conditioned gray scale image is binomially filtered providing a binomial filtered image. The gray scale image is subtracted from the binomial filtered image to produce a high pass enhanced image. An object mask detection is then performed on the high pass enhanced image. Objects are classified to identify bubble edgest. Multiple detections of bubble edges are pieced together to detect bubbles much larger than the area covered by a single image from the detector and the microscope lens. Bubbles are located even if low level image analysis shows gaps in the edges. The cytological system fills in significant gaps in the detected bubble edges. The result is then used for further processing by the automated cytology system.
60 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A bubble mapper apparatus comprising:
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(a) imaging means for capturing an image of a slide to obtain a representation of the image; (b) means for detecting bubble edges from images to generate a bubble edge output; (c) dilation means for dilating the bubble edge output to generate a dilated bubble edge map; (d) means for connected component analysis on the dilated bubble edge map to produce a labeled bubble map; (e) means for horizontal and vertical filling the labeled bubble map to produce a binary bubble map; and (f) erosion means for eroding the binary bubble map to produce a final bubble map. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 25)
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13. A method of detecting bubble edges comprising the steps of:
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(a) obtaining a gray scale image of a biological specimen at a predetermined magnification; (b) image conditioning the gray scale image to produce a conditioned gray scale image; and (c) segmenting the conditioned gray scale image into objects that are similar to bubble edges.
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14. A method of image segmentation comprising the steps of:
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(a) obtaining a gray scale image of a biological specimen at a predetermined magnification; (b) image conditioning the gray scale image to generate a conditioned gray scale image; and (c) segmenting the conditioned gray scale image into objects that are similar to bubble edges. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A bubble mapping method comprising the steps of:
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(a) imaging a slide having a coverslip to obtain a representation of a biological specimen under the coverslip; (b) detecting bubble edges from images to generate a bubble edge output; (c) performing a 3×
3 dilation on the bubble edge output to generate a dilated bubble edge map;(d) performing a connected component analysis on the dilated bubble edge map to produce a labeled bubble map; (e) performing a horizontal and vertical fill on the labeled bubble map to produce a binary bubble map; and (f) performing a 3×
3 erosion on the binary bubble map to produce a final bubble map. - View Dependent Claims (18, 26)
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19. A method for detecting bubble edges in an image of a slide having a coverslip comprising the steps of:
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(a) acquiring a plurality of images of the coverslip, wherein the plurality of images tiles a region under the coverslip; (b) image conditioning the plurality of images to generate a conditioned gray scale image; (c) bionomially filtering each conditioned gray scale image to provide a binomially filtered image; (d) subtracting the conditioned gray scale image from the binomial filtered image to produce a high pass filtered image; (e) performing object detection on the high pass filtered image to detect objects; and (f) classifying the objects to identify bubble edges. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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23. A bubble mapping method comprising the steps of:
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(a) imaging a slide having a coverslip to obtain a representation of a biological specimen under the coverslip; (b) detecting bubble edges from the representation of a biological specimen under the coverslip to generate a bubble edge output; (c) performing a 3×
3 dilation on the bubble edge output to generate a dilated bubble edge map;(d) performing a connected component analysis on the dilated bubble edge map to produce a labeled bubble map; (e) performing a horizontal and vertical fill on the labeled bubble map to produce a binary bubble map; and (f) performing a 3×
3 erosion on the binary bubble map to produce a final bubble map. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification