An Algorithm has been developed and used to find galaxies in the 2MASS data. It uses the central surface brightness and parameterized radial profile in conjuction with the integrated flux to discriminate galaxies from the much more numberous stellar population.
Additional tests reject contaminants such as doubles.
The reliability is limited currently by chance coincidences of three stars within a radius of 10 arcsec, which is important only below galactic latitudes of about 10 degrees.