Image Processing Device for Cell Type Differentiation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for diagnosing diseases, such as identifying cell types in blood and bone marrow specimens, face challenges in accurately distinguishing slight color differences in real images, making it difficult to differentiate between cell types based on color alone.
Innovation Solution
An image processing device and program that processes color images by changing hue, saturation, and intensity to maximize the distance between target pixels in a color space, allowing for clearer differentiation of cell types by converting color components and using gradation conversion tables to enhance color differences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If color difference is distinguished based on sub-volume in color space (indirect method), then cell types can be identified, but the method is indirect and does not clarify slight color differences in real images
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color changes by transforming the original color image through hue rotation and saturation adjustment. The processing unit rotates the hue of each pixel by a predetermined angle and adjusts saturation to enhance the visibility of slight color differences between cell types, directly addressing the limitation of indirect color space analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes color parameters (hue and saturation) of pixels to maximize color difference visibility. The processing unit modifies hue by rotation and saturation by multiplication with a correction coefficient, transforming the color representation to make slight color differences between cell types explicitly distinguishable in the real image.
2Measurement precision
If technical experts manually observe and judge cell differences using microscopes, then accurate diagnoses can be made, but the process is time-consuming and requires extensive expertise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical observation process with automated image processing. Instead of manual microscope observation, the system uses a processing unit to automatically rotate hues and adjust saturation, making cell type differentiation visible through enhanced color contrasts in the processed image.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an image processing system as an intermediary between the raw color image and the diagnostic decision. The processing unit acts as a mediator that transforms the original image by hue rotation and saturation adjustment, providing enhanced visual information that assists diagnosis without requiring manual observation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If color information is processed using conventional methods, then standard color representation is maintained, but slight color differences between cell types cannot be explicitly distinguished
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamic transformation to color parameters. The processing unit rotates hue by a predetermined angle and adjusts saturation dynamically based on a correction coefficient, transforming the static color representation into an enhanced state that reveals slight color differences while maintaining the underlying color information.
Data Source
AI summary
An inspection apparatus includes an imaging device and an image processing device. The imaging device photographs a specimen and outputs a color image of the specimen to the image processing device. The image processing device subjects the color image of the specimen to negative-positive reversal. After detecting a mode value of the hue the color image having been subjected to negative-positive reversal, the image processing device changes the hue of the color image in accordance with a difference between a boundary value of two predefined hues and the detected mode value. In accordance with the change of the hue, a plurality of target pixels different in the saturation is extracted and the saturation and the intensity of each pixel are changed, or the gradation of each pixel is converted so that the plurality of target pixels becomes most distant from one another in a color space.