Image enhancement using white balance technique in Ziehl-Neelsen sputum slide images

Abstract

Ziehl-Neelsen stain method is one of the common techniques that are being used to diagnose the tuberculosis (TB) infection. However, due to the manual process of preparing the samples, the image of the slide may not appear consistent when viewed using a computer and hence it complicates the process of diagnosis. This study applies modified white balance technique to the image of the Ziehl-Neelsen slides that have been captured using digital camera. It has been tested to three different categories of images, namely dark, underexposed and normal images. The method shows a good performance in automatically correcting the white balance properties in the images and enhances the image quality.