Automatic detection and classification of tuberculosis bacilli from camera-enabled smartphone microscopic images

Sputum smear conventional microscopy (CM) is used as primary bacteriological test for detection of TB. This technique is the most preferred technique in low and middle income countries due to its availability as well as accessibility. Manual screening of bacilli using CM is time consuming and labor intensive. As a result, the sensitivity of TB detection is compromised leading to misdiagnosis 33–50% of active cases. Automated methods can increase the sensitivity and specificity of TB detection. Currently, the remote areas of TB-endemic developing countries have easy accessibility to portable and camera-enabled Smartphone microscope for capturing images from ZN-stained smear slide. In this paper, the performance of watershed segmentation method for detection and classification of bacilli from camera-enable Smartphone microscopic images is presented. Several preprocessing techniques have been implemented prior to watershed segmentation. Current method has achieved the sensitivity and specificity of 93.3% and 87% respectively for classifying an image as TB positive or negative.