title: ROC-Boosting: A Feature Selection Method for Health Identification Using Tongue Image.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To select significant Haar-like features extracted from tongue images for health identification.
  
  
  METHODS
  1,322 tongue cases were included in this study. Health information and tongue images of each case were collected. Cases were classified into the following groups: group containing 148 cases diagnosed as health; group containing 332 cases diagnosed as ill based on health information, even though tongue image is normal; and group containing 842 cases diagnosed as ill. Haar-like features were extracted from tongue images. Then, we proposed a new boosting method in the ROC space for selecting significant features from the features extracted from these images.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 27 features were obtained from groups A, B, and C. Seven features were selected from groups A and B, while 25 features were selected from groups A and C.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The selected features in this study were mainly obtained from the root, top, and side areas of the tongue. This is consistent with the tongue partitions employed in traditional Chinese medicine. These results provide scientific evidence to TCM tongue diagnosis for health identification.
authors.affiliation: School of Computer Science and Technology, Tianjin University, 72 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China ; Department of Common Required Courses, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 312 Anshanxi Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300193, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: School of Computer Science and Technology, Tianjin University, 72 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Shizhong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 312 Anshanxi Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300193, China.
authors.forename: Hongwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002681:China; D019295:Computational Biology; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods; D012372:ROC Curve; D014059:Tongue / Q000473:pathology*