Preprocessing algorithms for automatic DNA sequence reading

Image processing algorithms for DNA sequence reading from DNA sequence gel autoradiographs are presented. Background normalization, contrast enhancement, boundary extraction and DNA sequence detection algorithms are respectively described in individual sections. The background normalization algorithm removes the variation of the background. The contrast enhancement algorithm extends the readable range of the captured DNA sequence image and increases the reliability of the DNA sequence reading system. The boundary extraction algorithm detects the boundaries of each lane set which are then used to correct geometric distortions. DNA sequence detection algorithm selects only the bands, determines the order of the bands in the sequence and joins different parts of the sequence. Version 4 of VIPS is used as the image processing algorithm development environment for this project.<>