Cell-sensitive microscopy imaging for cell image segmentation

Abstract

We propose a novel cell segmentation approach by estimating a cell-sensitive camera response function based on variously exposed phase contrast microscopy images on the same cell dish. Using the cell-sensitive microscopy imaging, cells' original irradiance signals are restored from all exposures and the irradiance signals on non-cell background regions are restored as a uniform constant (i.e., the imaging system is sensitive to cells only but insensitive to non-cell background). Cell segmentation is then performed on the restored irradiance signals by simple thresholding. The experimental results validate that high quality cell segmentation can be achieved by our approach. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.