RhinoSmart: a smartphone based system for rhino-cell segmentation

Nasal cytology studies microscopic analysis of the cells contained in the nasal mucosa and represents a useful diagnostic methodology able to recognize and differentiate some nasal pathologies. The standard clinical protocol provides for the observation of at least fifty microscopic fields and cell counting to obtain cell population distribution. In this paper we show as well-known image processing algorithms can be implemented on a common smartphone to support cell counting, taking a photo of the observation fields directly from the microscope. The system designed, called RhinoSmart, processes the images acquired on the smartphone itself and extracts the cellular elements. These cropped images can be observed and counted directly by the specialists or, better can be sent to a server system that classifies cells and send back the report in a short time.