Cell Tracking in Microscopy Images Using a Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filter

• Main Author: Lindmark, Sofia
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Avdelningen för visuell information och interaktion 2014
• Subjects: Cell tracking; Particle filter; Rao-Blackwellized particle filter
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-236769

Analysing migrating cells in microscopy time-lapse images has already helped the understanding of many biological processes and may be of importance in the development of new medical treatments. Today’s biological experiments tend to produce a huge amount of dynamic image data and tracking the individual cells by hand has become a bottleneck for the further analysis work. A number of cell tracking methods have therefore been developed over the past decades, but still many of the techniques have a limited performance. The aim of this Master Project is to develop a particle filter algorithm that automatically detects and tracks a large number of individual cells in an image sequence. The solution is based on a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter for multiple object tracking. The report also covers a review of existing automatic cell tracking techniques, a review of well-known filter techniques for single target tracking and how these techniques have been developed to handle multiple target tracking. The designed algorithm has been tested on real microscopy image data of neutrophils with 400 to 500 cells in each frame. The designed algorithm works well in areas of the images where no cells touch and can in these situations also correct for some segmentation mistakes. In areas where cells touch, the algorithm works well if the segmentation is correct, but often makes mistakes when it is not. A target effectiveness of 77 percent and a track purity of 80 percent are then achieved.