Detection of Root Knot Nematodes in Microscopy Images

Object detection in microscopy image is essential for further analysis in many applications. However, images are not always easy to analyze due to uneven illumination and noise. In addition, objects may appear merged together with debris. This work presents a method for detecting rice root knot nematodes in microscopy images. The problem involves four subproblems which are dealt with separately. The uneven illumination is corrected via polynomial fitting. The nematodes are then highlighted using mathematical morphology. A binary image is obtained and the microscope lines are removed. Finally, the detected nematodes are counted after thresholding the non-nematode particles. The results obtained from the performed tests show that this is a reliable and effective method when compared to manual counting.

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