FAZYTAN: a system for fast automated cell segmentation, cell image analysis and feature extraction based on TV-image pickup and parallel processing.

Cell location, segmentation and feature extraction of cell images are principal tasks of a high-resolution system for automated cytology. To perform these tasks with high speed, image processing algorithms and the architecture of a processor have to be optimized mutually. This has led to the development of a fast system for the evaluation of cytologic samples based on an optimized TV microscope, a host minicomputer with different peripheral array processors and digital image storages. The processors are optimized in speed for two-dimensional local operations to investigate neighborhood relations and morphology in cell images. Two-dimensional transformations of TV images (288 x 512 x 8 bit) can be carried out within 20 to 200 msec. The processors are able to realize linear filter functions (correlation, convolution) as well as nonlinear functions (median filtering). A set of measurements like area, circumference and connectivity can be derived parallely from one image in 20 msec. The system performs efficient and fast detection and segmentation of cells scanned in one TV frame within one second as well as the extraction of a large number of morphologic features within a few seconds. Based on these procedures, high-resolution analysis of several thousand cells of a sample within one minute will be possible.