A coupled-contour model for effective segmentation of cotton cross-sections in wide-field microscopic images

Image analysis of a fiber cross-section can provide direct measurements for cotton maturity. Effective segmentation of fiber contours in a cross-sectional image is paramount for accurate fiber geometrical measurements. In a wide-field microscopic image, the adhesion, breakage, and ambiguity (low contrast or noise) of fiber contours make the segmentation rather challenging. This paper presents a new approach for contour segmentation that takes advantage of the shape features of the triple concentric contours, called the coupled-contour model (CCM), of a cross-section, and a CCM-based algorithm developed to locate, split, merge, and refine fiber contours based on the established rules concerning contour features. For a wide-field microscopic image (12 megapixels), this CCM-based algorithm could detect >500 fiber cross-sections with a recall rate of 93.53% and a precision rate of 98.13%, and reduced the errors in maturity measurements by 50%.

[1]  Chunming Li,et al.  Distance Regularized Level Set Evolution and Its Application to Image Segmentation , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[2]  Luc Vincent,et al.  Watersheds in Digital Spaces: An Efficient Algorithm Based on Immersion Simulations , 1991, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[3]  Devron Thibodeaux,et al.  Applying Microscopy to the Development of a Reference Method for Cotton Fiber Maturity , 1993 .

[4]  Rose Matic-Leigh,et al.  Determining Cotton Fiber Maturity by Image Analysis , 1994 .

[5]  D. Thibodeaux,et al.  Development of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in direct, non-destructive, and rapid determination of cotton fiber maturity , 2011 .

[6]  Yao Zhao,et al.  Generalized Gradient Vector Flow for Snakes: New Observations, Analysis, and Improvement , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology.

[7]  Bugao Xu,et al.  FIBER IMAGE ANALYSIS. PART III : A NEW SEGMENTATION ALGORITHM FOR AUTONOMOUS SEPARATION OF FIBER CROSS-SECTIONS , 1999 .

[8]  Y. Huang,et al.  Image Analysis for Cotton Fibers , 2002 .

[9]  Li Yao,et al.  Automatic Segmentation of Fiber Cross Sections by Dual Thresholding , 2012 .

[10]  D. W. Lyons,et al.  Determination of Fiber Cross-Sectional Circularity From Measurements Made in a Longitudinal View , 1979 .

[11]  J. J. Hebert,et al.  A quick embedding method for light and electron microscopy of textile fibers. , 1991, Biotechnic & histochemistry : official publication of the Biological Stain Commission.

[12]  Yadong Wang,et al.  Accurate Vessel Segmentation With Constrained B-Snake , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[13]  D. P. Thibodeaux,et al.  Development of New Reference Standards for Cotton Fiber Maturity , 1999 .

[14]  Devron Thibodeaux,et al.  Rapid measurement of cotton fiber maturity and fineness by image analysis microscopy using the Cottonscope® , 2012 .

[15]  Bugao Xu,et al.  Assessing cotton maturity using distributional parameters of fiber cross-section measurements , 2014 .

[16]  B. Xu,et al.  Image Analysis for Cotton Fibers Part II: Cross-Sectional Measurements , 2004 .

[17]  J. Rodgers,et al.  Cottonscope fiber maturity, fineness, and ribbon width measurements with different sample sizes , 2015 .

[18]  J. P. Evans,et al.  A quick embedding method for light microscopy and image analysis of cotton fibers. , 1995, Biotechnic & Histochemistry.

[19]  Nikos Paragios,et al.  Gradient vector flow fast geometric active contours , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[20]  Chris Turner,et al.  Variation in maturity observed along individual cotton fibers using confocal microscopy and image analysis , 2015 .

[21]  Graham John Higgerson,et al.  Determination of cotton fiber maturity and linear density (fineness) by examination of fiber cross-sections. Part 2: A comparison optical and scanning electron microscopy , 2014 .

[22]  Devron Thibodeaux,et al.  Cotton Fiber Maturity by Image Analysis , 1986 .

[23]  Eric Hequet,et al.  Creation of a Set of Reference Material for Cotton Fiber Maturity Measurements , 2006 .

[24]  Birger Hjørland.  The foundation of the concept of relevance , 2010 .