Image processing device, image processing method, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10890576-B2
Application number	US-201716311781-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2017
Priority date	Jun 23, 2016
Publication date	Jan 12, 2021
Grant date	Jan 12, 2021

Abstract

There is provided an image processing device including an input receiver of inputting an image obtained by photographing a specimen subjected to staining and a hardware processor. The hardware processor extracts a region subjected to the staining from the image as a cell region; extracts a region as a candidate region, the region being surrounded by the cell region and not being subjected to the staining. The hardware processor further extracts a feature amount of the candidate region; determines whether or not the candidate region is a cell region on a basis of the feature amount; and corrects the candidate region which is determined to be a cell region by the distinction means to be a cell region.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An image processing device comprising:
a hardware processor that:
receives an image obtained by photographing a specimen subjected to staining;
extracts a region subjected to the staining from the image as a cell region;
extracts a hole region as a candidate region, the hole region being surrounded by the cell region and not being subjected to the staining;
extracts a feature amount of the candidate region;
determines, based on the feature amount, the candidate region is an unstained inner portion of a cell nucleus; and
corrects the unstained inner portion of the cell nucleus.

2. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the hardware processor performs binarization processing so that the candidate region is a cell region.

3. The image processing device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the hardware processor sets a threshold value of the feature amount on a basis of at least one of a cancer type, progression of cancer, a method of collecting tissue, and a staining method, and
determines, on a basis of the feature amount and the threshold value, whether or not the candidate region is a cell region.

4. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the feature amount includes a distinction result by a machine learning method.

5. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the feature amount includes at least one of an area, a circularity, a convex hull rate of an area, a number of concave/convex portions, and a curvature of the candidate region.

6. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the feature amount includes at least one of an average, a variation, and a difference of pixel value inside of or around the candidate region.

7. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the feature amount includes at least one of an edge intensity, an edge direction, and a variation in an edge direction of the candidate region.

8. An image processing method comprising:
inputting an image obtained by photographing a specimen subjected to staining;
extracting a region subjected to the staining from the image as a cell region;
extracting a hole region as a candidate region, the hole region being surrounded by the cell region and not being subjected to the staining;
extracting a feature amount of the candidate region;
determining, based on the feature amount, the candidate region is an unstained inner portion of the cell nucleus; and
correcting the unstained inner portion of the cell nucleus.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing an image processing program to cause a computer to:
receive an image obtained by photographing a specimen subjected to staining;
extract a region subjected to the staining from the image as a cell region;
extract a hole region as a candidate region, the hole region being surrounded by the cell region and not being subjected to the staining;
extract a feature amount of the candidate region;
determine, based on the feature amount, the candidate region is an unstained inner portion of a cell nucleus; and
correct the unstained inner portion of the cell nucleus.

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Inc

Inventors

• Mimura Yusuke

Classifications

• G01N33/48

  Biological material, e.g. blood, urine (G01N33/02, G01N33/26, G01N33/44, G01N33/46 take precedence); Haemocytometers (counting blood corpuscules distributed over a surface by scanning the surface G06M11/02) · CPC title

• G01N33/483

  Physical analysis of biological material · CPC title

• G06T7/60

  Analysis of geometric attributes · CPC title

• G06T7/00

  Image analysis · CPC title

• G01B11/24

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title