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Segmentation of nearly isotropic overlapped tracks in photomicrographs using successive erosions as watershed markers
Author(s) -
Siqueira Alexandre Fioravante,
Nakasuga Wagner Massayuki,
Guedes Sandro,
Ratschbacher Lothar
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.23336
Subject(s) - watershed , segmentation , computer science , isotropy , reliability (semiconductor) , artificial intelligence , pattern recognition (psychology) , computer vision , mathematics , physics , optics , power (physics) , quantum mechanics
Procedures for measuring and counting tracks are time‐consuming and involve practical problems. The precision of automatic counting methods is not satisfactory yet; the major challenges are distinguishing tracks and material defects, identifying small tracks and defects of similar size, and detecting overlapping tracks. Materials and Methods Here, we address the overlapping tracks issue using the algorithm Watershed Using Successive Erosions as Markers (WUSEM), which combines the watershed transform, morphological erosions and labeling to separate regions in photomicrographs. We tested this method in two data sets of diallyl phthalate (DAP) photomicrographs and compared the results when counting manually and using the classic watershed and H‐watershed transforms. Results The mean automatic/manual efficiency counting ratio when using WUSEM in the test data sets is 0.97 ± 0.11. Conclusion WUSEM shows reliable results when used in photomicrographs presenting almost isotropic objects. Also, diameter and eccentricity criteria may be used to increase the reliability of this method.