title: Toward organism identification through analysis of bacterial colonies.
abstract: The clinical problem of bacterial identification has been approached by applying pattern-recognition techniques to multi-wavelength surface-scattering and reflectance data derived from real-time scans of isolated colonies. Preliminary results, obtained from blood-agar plates inoculated with a mixture of staphylococci, streptococci and escherichieae, indicate that these organisms can be differentiated with better than 90% certainty, provided the colonies are physically separated and their growth conditions closely controlled. Data collection and classification characteristics of the experimental system are briefly described; it is felt that the technique, possibly expanded to include boundary characteristics of the colonies, may offer a viable means of identifying clinically important bacteria.
mesh_terms: D001322:Autoanalysis; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000145:classification*; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000145:classification*; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000145:classification*