SEGMENTATION OF TYMPANIC MEMBRANE USING POLARIZED IMAGING

TV. Tien, NN,Uyen, LT. Tung, NH. Dang, BMQ. Linh, PNK. Cat, HQ. Linh
DCSE Lab – 402 C6, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: tranvantien@hcmut.edu.vn

Abstract Result
Otitis media is one of the most common infections among children on
over around the world. Diagnosing children with acute otitis media is
difficult, therefore, there are more and more algorithms developed to
help physicians diagnose otitis media.

In the present word, changing some properties of light source such as

intensity or using polarized light. After that, detecting the tympanic
membrane relied on some of the algorithms on the matlab platform.

Method
Our research has assembled a model of endoscope based on the model
of endoscope being used at hospital to capture the images of tympanic c d
membrane.
Figure 1. The endoscope model uses a
polarized light source
(1) a light source; (2) a fiber optic cable;
(3)a rigid endoscope; (4) an optical
endoscopic camera adaptor ; e f
(5) a capture camera; (6) Computers.
Figure 3. a) White image of TM b) Polarized image of TM
Two cross polarized glasses was used to enhance image resolution c-f) Segmented result of TM
Active – contour algorithm was used to detect tympanic membrane. Fig 3a present specular highlight regions on the surface of
The result of segmentation by algorithm was checked again by tympanic membrane. Include: 1- Cone of light; 2-Pars thensa; 3-
physician. Umbo; 4-Hands of malleus. Whereas, Fig 3b do not have the
present of the glare that help the image processing become more
Dice similarity coeficient (DSC) is used to measure the amount of accurate. Fig 3d, a mask is placed near the position of the
overlapping between the segmented region of tympanic membrane tympanic membrane. Growing of this contour in this algorithm
with active – contour algorithm and the segmentation of physicians. stops at a predefined convergence criterion. The final result is
2𝑇𝑃
𝐷𝑆𝐶 = shown in Figure 3f
2𝑇𝑃+𝐹𝑃+𝐹𝑁
Finally, the segmentation of tympanic membrane is checked again
by physicians.
The results of image segmentation using active – contour
algorithm overlapping the segmentation tympanic membrane of
physician are from 0.856 to 0.940.
Figure 2. Illustration of segmentation
errors calculation between the segmented
and ground truth objects for the DSC
determination Conclution
TN (true-negative): segmented region . Our research differs from other reports in one main aspect: using 2
FP (false-positive): segmented region is not overlapping the ground polarized filters to remove specular highlights in image taken from
truth. camera and active-contour algorithm is used to segment tympanic
TP (true-positive): intersection between segmentation with algorithm membrane from original image without preprocessing.
and ground truth. Sometime, it is part of the image is overlap between The results of image segmentation using active – contour
segmentation and ground truth. algorithm overlapping the segmentation tympanic membrane of
FN(false-negative): missed parts of the ground truth. physician are 0.940.
In future, multi wavelength led with polariazed filters are used to
take image from camera

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