IMAGE-PROCESSING FOR COMBINED BRIGHT-FIELD AND REFLECTION INTERFERENCE CONTRAST VIDEO MICROSCOPY

Image processing algorithms for automatic extraction of cell body cont ours and cell-substratum contacts from video images, which were obtain ed-by bright-field microscopy and reflection interference contrast mic roscopy, respectively, are described. Double-view imaging, which combi nes these two optical techniques, is used to investigate the relations hip between cell-to-substratum adhesion and cell shape changes during locomotion of the amoeboid cells of Dictyostelium discoideum. Contact areas of cells are extracted from reflection interference contrast ima ges via a routine which performs binarisation on the basis of threshol d estimation, as it is calculated by a histogram minimum method. Bound aries of cells are extracted from bright-field images by utilising an algorithm that includes background subtraction and binarisation based on texture discrimination by means of a rank operator. (C) 1997 Elsevi er Science Ireland Ltd.