Computer Image Processing Technology-assisted Sperm Motility Analysis

Computer assisted sperm motion analysis system (CASMA) is a typical application of computer image processing technology in computer assisted diagnosis (CAD). The classical manual method cannot reach an accurate result efficiently. The booming of microcomputer technology makes low-cost configurable CASMA possible. Using the computer technology, CASMA system can reach not only a high precision but also a sound reproducibiliry. Nowadays the CASMA system has become an advanced tool for male sterility in modern andrology and reproductive laboratory.At first the system structures and the analysis theories are described in details. Then the new idea of using two steps, that is to say, inner-frame image segmentation and inter-frame multitarget tracking to analysis the sequence frames is presented. And all the algorithms of parameters extracting are presented too. Otherwise, the factors, which are affecting system precision, the evolution methods to analysis quality and several different aspects of system are discussed deeply.In this paper, according to the spermatozoa microscopic image characteristics four conventional image segmentation algorithms are compared. And at last the maximum between-class variance method is determined to be the best segmentation algorithm to the special images.In this paper, several different multitarget tracking algorithms are also compared, and the relationship between the maximum velocity and the concentration under the special image capture frequency is brought out. A novel tracking strategy of referring to the velocity and direction of the sperm head based on the neighbor matching technology is introduced in our algorithm.The comparison results of 24 specimens using our algorithms and an American product HTM-IVOS system shows that our algorithms are valuable for the clinical analysis and have a bright application prospect.