Browsing by Author "Panicker, RO"

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    A Comparative Study of Different Auto-Focus Methods for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Detection from Brightfield Microscopic Images
    (PROCEEDINGS OF 2016 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING, VLSI, ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS AND ROBOTICS (DISCOVER), 2016) Saini, G; Panicker, RO; Soman, B; Rajan, J
    Automatic tuberculosis (TB) detection methods using microscopic images are becoming more popular now a days. Auto-focusing is the first and foremost step in the development of an automated microscope for TB detection. Different focus measures exist for the selection of in-focus image from both fluorescence and brightfield microscopic images. Recently, some researchers have investigated and compared several different focus measures for TB sputum microscopy. In this study we focused on brightfield microscopic images and considered around 20 popular focus measures. Experiments were conducted on a large set of images having different features.
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    A Review of Automatic Methods Based on Image Processing Techniques for Tuberculosis Detection from Microscopic Sputum Smear Images
    (JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SYSTEMS, 2016) Panicker, RO; Soman, B; Saini, G; Rajan, J
    Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It primarily affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. TB remains one of the leading causes of death in developing countries, and its recent resurgences in both developed and developing countries warrant global attention. The number of deaths due to TB is very high (as per the WHO report, 1.5 million died in 2013), although most are preventable if diagnosed early and treated. There are many tools for TB detection, but the most widely used one is sputum smear microscopy. It is done manually and is often time consuming; a laboratory technician is expected to spend at least 15 min per slide, limiting the number of slides that can be screened. Many countries, including India, have a dearth of properly trained technicians, and they often fail to detect TB cases due to the stress of a heavy workload. Automatic methods are generally considered as a solution to this problem. Attempts have been made to develop automatic approaches to identify TB bacteria from microscopic sputum smear images. In this paper, we provide a review of automatic methods based on image processing techniques published between 1998 and 2014. The review shows that the accuracy of algorithms for the automatic detection of TB increased significantly over the years and gladly acknowledges that commercial products based on published works also started appearing in the market. This review could be useful to researchers and practitioners working in the field of TB automation, providing a comprehensive and accessible overview of methods of this field of research.