Color tongue image segmentation using fuzzy Kohonen networks and genetic algorithm

A Tongue Imaging and Analysis System is being developed to acquire digital color tongue images, and to automatically classify and quantify the tongue characteristics for traditional Chinese medical examinations. An important processing step is to segment the tongue pixels into two categories, the tongue body (no coating) and the coating. In this paper, we present a two-stage clustering algorithm that combines Fuzzy Kohonen Clustering Networks and Genetic Algorithm for the segmentation, of which the major concern is to increase the interclass distance and at the same time decrease the intraclass distance. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of this algorithm.