Accurate segmentation of leukocyte in blood cell images using Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy and interval Type II fuzzy set theory

Abstract

In this paper automatic leukocyte segmentation in pathological blood cell images is proposed using intuitionistic fuzzy and interval Type II fuzzy set theory. This is done to count different types of leukocytes for disease detection. Also, the segmentation should be accurate so that the shape of the leukocytes is preserved. So, intuitionistic fuzzy set and interval Type II fuzzy set that consider either more number of uncertainties or a different type of uncertainty as compared to fuzzy set theory are used in this work. As the images are considered fuzzy due to imprecise gray levels, advanced fuzzy set theories may be expected to give better result. A modified Cauchy distribution is used to find the membership function. In intuitionistic fuzzy method, non-membership values are obtained using Yager's intuitionistic fuzzy generator. Optimal threshold is obtained by minimizing intuitionistic fuzzy divergence. In interval type II fuzzy set, a new membership function is generated that takes into account the two levels in Type II fuzzy set using probabilistic T co norm. Optimal threshold is selected by minimizing a proposed Type II fuzzy divergence. Though fuzzy techniques were applied earlier but these methods failed to threshold multiple leukocytes in images. Experimental results show that both interval Type II fuzzy and intuitionistic fuzzy methods perform better than the existing non-fuzzy/fuzzy methods but interval Type II fuzzy thresholding method performs little bit better than intuitionistic fuzzy method. Segmented leukocytes in the proposed interval Type II fuzzy method are observed to be distinct and clear.