Colour image enhancement for Ziehl-Neelsen slide images

The recognition of tuberculosis (TB) bacilli base on a color image processing is one of the most challenging tasks in image processing. The problems increase if the captured images are blurred or have low contrast. This paper proposes partial contrast and saturation technique methods to enhance color images of Ziehl-Neelsen stained smear for the detection of TB bacilli. The partial contrast and saturation techniques have been tested using seven different images. It is shown that the TB bacilli are easier to be detected after applying these techniques.