Patent ID: 7873480

Claim:
A method for identifying a location for each of a plurality of histospots in an image of a stained tissue microarray comprising: obtaining an image using an optical imaging device; and using a programmable computer to perform the steps of: a) removing from the image any of the histospots that are debris and/or are fused histospots; b) applying a virtual mask that has a size and shape characteristic of a histospot which does not constitute a fused histospot and/or debris within the plurality of spots so as to cover an area of the image having a pixel intensity area which is higher than the pixel intensity area anywhere else in the image; c) temporarily setting the intensity of the image in the area under the mask to zero; d) repeating steps (b) and (c) until no area is identified having a sufficient intensity to qualify as a histospot; e) identifying a reference point within each of the histospots; and f) connecting the reference point within each of the spots to either a nearest neighboring histospot or to edge of the image; thereby identifying the location for each of the plurality of histospots in the image.