Computer-aided image processing for bacterial cell enumeration - Essay Example

There appear several inhibitors in the way of counting colonies to ensure effectiveness of the method. The inhibitors include; methods of handling confluent development of the development of colonies that lean or overlaps other colonies, the methods of differentiating colonies regardless of the different form, volume, their feel, light intensity amongst other factors (Daims, 2007) The methods ensure accuracy in counting. A devise termed as a colony counter assists in including colonies in bacteria and varied microorganisms thriving in an algae plate.

The method applied in overcoming the hindrances includes thresholding, segmentation methods, time domain frequency method, watersheding method, edge detection and morphology operator methods, regional descriptors amongst others. These methods emit a heightened level of accurateness. The projected counter proves highly reliable at both levels of correctness and memory; it also proves flexible and efficient in terms of effort and time saving (National Renewable Energy Laboratory (U.S.) and United States, 2006) Keywords Some of the key words in the study includes Bacteria colony, thresholding, morphology, water shedding.

Introduction Bacteria colony counting appears vital in quantitative, accurate judgment of pathogens in clinical investigations and diagnosis. The manual process of counting bacteria appears challenging. The use of an automated colony counting helps in saving time and reduces labor requirements. In a bid to create fast and accurate information, and cut down the use of labor workload, two colony counting techniques come in play. The techniques might apply the use of direct and indirect process of counting the colonies.

The tradition plate count technique pauses as an indirect technique and often preferred for its cheap nature. Technologies applied for quantification of microbial growth involves: ATP Bioluminescence, spiral plating, the use of membrane filtration, Direct Epi-Florescent Filter Microscopy and Membrane laser scanning, Fluorescence amongst others. Various hindrances require addressing for the techniques that count the present colonies. The techniques supply a heightened degree of correctness in counting that could be attained by applying the use of a trained hand on operator.

The machine technique; allows the Bacteria to grow on a filter within a period of 24to 48 hours to examine the contamination level of the sample (Mittal and Matsko, 2012).  The microbiologists’ uses dye to identify the bacteria clearly and ease the counting process. In an industry setting, thousands of such samples appear per day; the colonies on each side remain counted manually. This consumes a lot of time and increases the chances of errors. The aim of the project remains to create software that saves time and produces the exact outcomes and ensures competence to customers.

The project extension designs allows for colonies counting for a period of 6 to 8 hours before, which saves time. The paper seems to differentiate the processing of colony figures with colored data; the filter method applies to deionize (Masters, 2006).  Bacteria Bacteria pause as nuclear microorganisms; that thrives in various surfaces of the earth. Bacteriology, the study of bacteria, is a branch in micro biology. Bacteria can grow anywhere on the face of the earth, in soil, acid hot springs amongst other places.

Grouped bacteria originate from one common bacterium. A bacteria cell