A New Approach for Edge Detection of Color Microscopic Image Using Modified Pulse Coupled Neural Networks

Abstract

In this paper, a novel algorithm for microscopic color cell image edge detection based on Pulse Coupled Neural Networks (PCNN) is presented. Microscopic color image edge detection has proven to be a difficult task due to uneven brightness, cross-color existing between cell boundary and background caused by dyeing and noise. To solve these problems, this paper originally employs an improved PCNN model called multi-dimensional PCNN to implement edge detection of microscopic color cell image. PCNN is an advanced approach which aims at processing color images parellelly rather than separately dispose signal to every channel because it is characterized by synchronous neuronal burst and multi-dimensional convolution. To test the feasibility and effectiveness of multi-dimensional PCNN on edge detection of microscopic color cell images, experiments of several microscopic cell images are carried out. Empirical results show that multi-dimensional PCNN outperforms classical methods in terms of anti-noise and the accuracy of weak edge detection.