Automatic lane and band detection in images of thin layer chromatography

Abstract

This work aims at developing an automatic method for the analysis of TLC images for measuring a set of features that can be used for the characterization of the distinctive patterns that result from the separation of oligosaccharides contained in human urine. This paper describes the methods developed for the automatic detection of the lanes contained in TLC images, and for the automatic separation of bands for each detected lane. The extraction of quantitative information related with each band was accomplished with two methods: the EM expectation-maximization and nonlinear least squares trustregion algorithms. The results of these methods, as well as additional quantitative information related with each band, are also presented. © Springer-Verlag 2004.