Patent Document ID: 7526116
Application ID: 11655035
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of automatically identifying sperm cells in a smear, comprising: capturing a first digital color image within an area of interest on a microscope slide on which the smear is located with a digital camera operably coupled to a microscope and to a computer processor programmed with an algorithm to perform the following; splitting the first digital color image into a plurality of component color space images and storing the component color space images into a plurality of memory spaces; manipulating the component color space images by mathematical functions, logical functions or a combination of mathematical and logical functions to produce a result image; thresholding the result image to create a binary result image; processing the binary result image with particle (blob) analysis; identifying probable sperm cells by applying a set of blob factors; creating a list of universal coordinate system positions of the probable sperm cells selecting the plurality of individual component color space images to include at least two images selected from a group consisting of: a Red component color space image; a Green component color space image; a Blue component color space image; a Hue component color space image; a Saturation component color space image; an Intensity component color space image; a Cyan component color space image; a Magenta component color space image; a Yellow component color space image; and a Black component color space image; and using the mathematical or logical function: at least subtracting the Red component color space image from the Green component color space image to produce a result image to identify the sperm cells.