Fluorescent image classification by major color histograms and a neural network.

Efficient image classification of microscopic fluorescent spheres is demonstrated with a supervised backpropagation neural network (NN) that uses as inputs the major color histogram representation of the fluorescent image to be classified. Two techniques are tested for the major color search: (1) cluster mean (CM) and (2) Kohonen's self-organizing feature map (SOFM). The method is shown to have higher recognition rates than Swain and Ballard's Color Indexing by histogram intersection. Classification with SOFM-generated histograms as inputs to the classifier NN achieved the best recognition rate (90%) for cases of normal, scaled, defocused, photobleached, and combined images of AMCA (7-Amino-4-Methylcoumarin- 3-Acetic Acid) and FITC (Fluorescein Isothiocynate)-stained microspheres.