Significant Geometry Features in Tongue Image Analysis.

Bob Zhang,Han Zhang

doi:10.1155/2015/897580

Abstract

The shape of a human tongue and its relation to a patients' state, either healthy or diseased (and if diseased which disease), is quantitatively analyzed using geometry features by means of computerized methods in this paper. Thirteen geometry features based on measurements, distances, areas, and their ratios are extracted from tongue images captured by a specially designed device with color correction. Using the features, 5 tongue shapes (rectangle, acute and obtuse triangles, square, and circle) are defined based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Classification of the shapes is subsequently carried out with a decision tree. A large dataset consisting of 672 images comprising of 130 healthy and 542 disease examples (labeled according to Western medical practices) are tested. Experimental results show that the extracted geometry features are effective at tongue shape classification (coarse level). Even if more than one disease class belongs to the same shape, the disease classes can still be discriminated via fine level classification using a combination of the geometry features, with an average accuracy of 76.24% for all shapes.

Highlights

In this paper we thoroughly examined tongue shape and its relation to a patients’ state using geometry features through computerized methods
With tongue images captured by a specially designed device that accounts for image correction and a large dataset labeled according to western medical practices, we have a solid foundation to carry out this objective study
The features helped define 5 tongue shapes rooted upon traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and classified using a decision tree

Summary

Introduction

Ambiguity and subjectivity are associated with their diagnostic results To eliminate these qualitative aspects, tongue images can be objectively analyzed, which offers a new way to diagnose disease, one that minimizes the physical harm inflicted to patients (compared with other medical examinations). In state-of-the-art computerized tongue image analysis, color and texture features are the most prevalent [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. Using a support decision tool to weight the relative influences of the geometry features, they classified an image into one of six tongue shapes, namely, hammer, rectangle, acute triangle, obtuse triangle, square, and round (based on TCM). There was little quantitative analysis between tongue shape and the relationship to its current health state

Methods

Results

Conclusion