Core-shell detection in images of polymer microbeads

Abstract

Microbeads of various size with complex core-shell structures are widely used in many applications such as drug delivery. During synthesis, it is important to characterize the beads' size such that uniform properties can be obtained from uniform size. The core-shell structures can be imaged with SEM (scanning electron microscope) or TEM (transmission electron microscope) but there are no available methods to quantitatively analyze the size and distribution automatically. In this paper, we propose two automated core-shell detection methods using Hough transform and generalized Hough transform. We show the capabilities of these methods using OpenCV and compare the relative advantages and limitations. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.