J. Marotz et al., Effective object recognition for automated counting of colonies in Petri dishes (automated colony counting), COMPUT M PR, 66(2-3), 2001, pp. 183-198
Determination of the number of colonies (colony forming units, CFU) is a st
andard method in microbiological analysis to ensure the quality of drinking
water. Normally this tedious work is still performed manually, A PC-based
method for the automated counting of digitized images of Petri dishes is pr
esented. The method includes highly specific and effective object recogniti
on algorithms that ensure very high detection accuracy. The processing sequ
ence implies internal controls therefore enabling reliable automated evalua
tions of series of images. Use of the Fuzzy formalism and the high adaptivi
ty of the algorithms lead to an extraordinary user-friendliness. For digiti
zation different devices like flatbed scanners or CCD-cameras can be used.
Due to the highly adaptive algorithms samples from the routine standard pre
paration process in laboratories can be evaluated. The accuracy and quality
of the method aim at advancement in objectivity of colony counting and qua
lity control and assurance. The algorithms and the evaluation of the method
are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.