Development of a semi-automatic system for pollen recognition

A semi-automatic system for pollen recognition is studied for the european project ASTHMA. The goal of such a system is to provide accurate pollen concentration measurements. This information can be used as well by the palynologists, the clinicians or a forecast system to predict pollen dispersion. At first, our emphasis has been put on Cupressaceae, Olea, Poaceae and Urticaceae pollen types. The system is composed of two modules: pollen grain extraction and pollen grain recognition. In the first module, the pollen grains are observed in light microscopy and are extracted automatically from a pollen slide coloured with fuchsin and digitized in 3D. In the second module, the pollen grain is analyzed for recognition. To accomplish the recognition, it is necessary to work on 3D images and to use detailed palynological knowledge. This knowledge describes the pollen types according to their main visible characteristerics and to those which are important for recognition. Some pollen structures are identified like the pore with annulus in Poaceae, the reticulum in Olea and similar pollen types or the cytoplasm in Cupressaceae. The preliminary results show the recognition of some pollen types, like Urticaceae or Poaceae or some groups of pollen types, like reticulate group.