Automatic Classi cation of Bacteria Culture Images

Automatic image analysis plays an important role in biological, medical, and ecological applications. However, because of the complexity and diiculty of automatic image analysis, no currently available image processing systems can achieve a desired level of performance on diierent types of images. The design of an image analysis system needs to be application-oriented and conform to the requirements of the task. In this report, an image analysis system whose sole purpose is bacteria image analysis is introduced. The details of its implementation are given, and its performance on bacteria culture images, provided by the Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, is evaluated.