Commercial image analysers and the characterization of microscopical images

This review surveys some of the current approaches to the characterization of microscopical images using commercially available image analysers. The role of image pre-processing and segmentation is considered, together with the characterization of images by optical density, as well as size and shape. The newer analysers are capable of investigating relationships between grey-levels in small areas of the image ('texture-analysis'); some of the descriptive approaches in this latter field are briefly outlined.