METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR UNSUPERVISED SEGMENTATION OF MICROSCOPIC COLOR IMAGE OF UNSTAINED SPECIMEN AND DIGITAL STAINING OF SEGMENTED HISTOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

摘要

The invention relates to a computing device-implemented method and apparatus for unsupervised segmentation of microscopic color image of unstained specimen and digital staining of segmented histological structures. Image of unstained specimen is created by light microscope 101, recorded by color camera 102 and stored on computer-readable medium 103. The invention is carried out by a computing device 104 comprised of: computer-readable medium for storing and computer for executing instructions of the algorithm for unsupervised segmentation of microscopic color image of unstained specimen and digital staining of segmented histological structures. Segmented histological structures and digitally stained image are stored and displayed on the output storing and display device 105 in order to establish diagnosis of a disease. The invention is an improvement over the prior art as it is characterized by the: (i) shortening of slide preparation process; ( ii ) reduction of intrahistologist variation in diagnosis; (iii) elimination of adding chemical effects on specimen; ( iv ) elimination of altering morphology of the specimen; (v) simplification of histological and intra-surgical tissue analysis; ( vi ) being significantly cheaper than existing staining techniques; (vii) being harmless to the user because toxic chemical stains are not used; ( viii ) discrimination of several types of histological structures present in the specimen; ( ix ) usage of the same specimen for more than one analysis.