Image Processing Techniques in Relation to Studies of Red Cell Shape

Abstract

The purpose of these remarks is to present a brief description of some techniques of image processing and to offer a few illustrative examples of the ways in which image processing might contribute to studies of red cell shape. Image processing refers to the application of automatic techniques, both digital and analog, to visual images so as to transform the images or to extract quantitative information from them. While it has been known for some time that one can adequately represent a visual image by a mathematical function, it is only within the past 10–15 years that the electronic technology has made it practicable for images to be translated into numerical form and manipulated by computer programs. A number of working groups [8, 9] have already applied image processing to a variety of problems of biological and medical interest; the applications to health science appear to be particularly attractive and numerous, perhaps because so much life science research depends upon visual inspection of biological objects.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Grants 5 POI GM14940-06 and 1. POI GM19428-01.