Multi-spectral based cell segmentation and analysis

The polychrome analysis of biological samples can yield information usually masked an monochrome or even color analysis. This paper shows that after an accurate choice of the spectral bands, the information obtained can be useful for image analysis purposes (such as segmentation) and also for biochemical analysis through absorption or fluorescence measurements. After a description of the image acquisition system, the core of the algorithm is presented. The method is based on the approximate reconstruction of the absorption spectrum at each point in the image. For reconstruction only three observations of non-overlapping bands are used in an efficient model of the absorption spectrum of the samples. Such a reconstruction establishes the basis for the segmentation and also for the analysis of the samples. The application of this technique has been shown to be specially useful for pigmented plant cells cultivated in vitro in the framework of the development of a complete image analysis system for plant cells