title: A new way of tracking motion, shape, and divisions.
abstract: The process of detecting and tracking biological features such as bacteria and nuclei is complicated by the fact that they constantly change their shape. Shape changes happen both continuously as the biological features grow and discontinuously as they divide or die. In this paper I present a new method of tracking such features for the case that they can be reasonably approximated by a relatively simple mathematical shape such as a cylinder or an ellipse. Using contour plots with multiple levels to detect the features and their shapes, rather than the commonly used single contour detection technique, this method can efficiently detect multiple features even if they have large differences in brightness, as well as reliably track divisions when both brightness and size drop dramatically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands. t.idema@tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Timon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Idema
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D009068:Movement; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins