Automatic orchid snail detection for computed tomography images

In this paper, we address the problem of orchid snail detection from computed tomography (CT) images. Orchid snails in a CT image are barely visible since they are well-blended with the background. Moreover, noise and artifacts generated by the CT scanner are spread across the image. Therefore, the orchid snails are hardly detectable. To cope with the indistinct orchid snails, we present a new automatic orchid snail detection algorithm. First, Anisotropic diffusion technique is employed to enhance boundaries, and at the same time, try to eliminate noise and artifacts. Then, strong edges are detected by using Canny method. Subsequently, circular Hough transform is exploited to indicate the locations of orchid snails because the shape of an orchid snail's boundary is quite round. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can provide robust and feasible orchid snail locations.