Incorporating Colour Information for Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Melanoma from Dermoscopy Images: A Retrospective Survey and Critical Analysis

Cutaneous melanoma is the most life-threatening form of skin cancer. Although advanced melanoma is often considered as incurable, if detected and excised early, the prognosis is promising. Today, clinicians use computer vision in an increasing number of applications to aid early detection of melanoma through dermatological image analysis (dermoscopy images, in particular). Colour assessment is essential for the clinical diagnosis of skin cancers. Due to this diagnostic importance, many studies have either focused on or employed colour features as a constituent part of their skin lesion analysis systems. These studies range from using low-level colour features, such as simple statistical measures of colours occurring in the lesion, to availing themselves of high-level semantic features such as the presence of blue-white veil, globules, or colour variegation in the lesion. This paper provides a retrospective survey and critical analysis of contributions in this research direction

Computer Aided Diagnostic Support System for Skin cancer: Review of techniques and algorithms

Image-based computer aided diagnosis systems have significant potential for screening and early detection of malignant melanoma. We review the state of the art in these systems and examine current practices, problems, and prospects of image acquisition, pre-processing, segmentation, feature extraction and selection, and classification of dermoscopic images. This paper reports statistics and results from the most important implementations reported to date. We compared the performance of several classifiers specifically developed for skin lesion diagnosis and discussed the corresponding findings. Whenever available, indication of various conditions that affect the technique’s performance is reported. We suggest a framework for comparative assessment of skin cancer diagnostic models and review the results based on these models. The deficiencies in some of the existing studies are highlighted and suggestions for future research are provided

Computer aided diagnostic support system for skin cancer: A review of techniques and algorithms

Image-based computer aided diagnosis systems have significant potential for screening and early detection of malignant melanoma. We review the state of the art in these systems and examine current practices, problems, and prospects of image acquisition, pre-processing, segmentation, feature extraction and selection, and classification of dermoscopic images. This paper reports statistics and results from the most important implementations reported to date. We compared the performance of several classifiers specifically developed for skin lesion diagnosis and discussed the corresponding findings. Whenever available, indication of various conditions that affect the technique's performance is reported. We suggest a framework for comparative assessment of skin cancer diagnostic models and review the results based on these models. The deficiencies in some of the existing studies are highlighted and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2013 Ammara Masood and Adel Ali Al-Jumaily

Computational Methods for Pigmented Skin Lesion Classification in Images: Review and Future Trends

Skin cancer is considered as one of the most common types of cancer in several countries, and its incidence rate has increased in recent years. Melanoma cases have caused an increasing number of deaths worldwide, since this type of skin cancer is the most aggressive compared to other types. Computational methods have been developed to assist dermatologists in early diagnosis of skin cancer. An overview of the main and current computational methods that have been proposed for pattern analysis and pigmented skin lesion classification is addressed in this review. In addition, a discussion about the application of such methods, as well as future trends, is also provided. Several methods for feature extraction from both macroscopic and dermoscopic images and models for feature selection are introduced and discussed. Furthermore, classification algorithms and evaluation procedures are described, and performance results for lesion classification and pattern analysis are given

Machine learning methods for binary and multiclass classification of melanoma thickness From dermoscopic images

Thickness of the melanoma is the most important factor associated with survival in patients with melanoma. It is most commonly reported as a measurement of depth given in millimeters (mm) and computed by means of pathological examination after a biopsy of the suspected lesion. In order to avoid the use of an invasive method in the estimation of the thickness of melanoma before surgery, we propose a computational image analysis system from dermoscopic images. The proposed feature extraction is based on the clinical findings that correlate certain characteristics present in dermoscopic images and tumor depth. Two supervised classification schemes are proposed: a binary classification in which melanomas are classified into thin or thick, and a three-class scheme (thin, intermediate, and thick). The performance of several nominal classification methods, including a recent interpretable method combining logistic regression with artificial neural networks (Logistic regression using Initial variables and Product Units, LIPU), is compared. For the three-class problem, a set of ordinal classification methods (considering ordering relation between the three classes) is included. For the binary case, LIPU outperforms all the other methods with an accuracy of 77.6%, while, for the second scheme, although LIPU reports the highest overall accuracy, the ordinal classification methods achieve a better balance between the performances of all classes

Unmixing and pigment identification using visible and short-wavelength infrared: Reflectance vs logarithm reflectance hyperspaces

Hyperspectral imaging has recently consolidated as a useful technique for pigment mapping and identification, although it is commonly supported by additional non-invasive analytical methods. Since it is relatively rare to find pure pigments in aged paintings, spectral unmixing can be helpful in facilitating pigment identification if suitable mixing models and endmember extraction procedures are chosen. In this study, a subtractive mixing model is assumed, and two approaches are compared for endmember extraction: one based on a linear mixture model, and the other, nonlinear and Deep-Learning based. Two spectral hyperspaces are used: the spectral reflectance (R hyperspace) and the -log(R) hyperspace, for which the subtractive model becomes additive. The performance of unmixing is evaluated by the similarity of the estimated reflectance to the measured data, and pigment identification accuracy. Two spectral ranges (400 to 1000 nm and 900 to 1700 nm) and two objects (a laboratory sample and an aged painting, both on copper) are tested. The main conclusion is that unmixing in the -log(R) hyperspace with a linear mixing model is better than for the non-linear model in R hyperspace, and that pigment identification is generally better in R hyperspace, improving by merging the results in both spectral ranges.MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” [grant number PID2021-124446NB-100]Ministry of Universities (Spain) [grant number FPU2020-05532

Color detection in dermoscopic images of pigmented skin lesions through computer vision techniques

This thesis offers an insight into skin cancer detection, focusing on the extraction of distinct features (color, namely) from potential melanoma lesions. The following document provides an outlook of melanoma analysis, as well as experimental results based on Matlab implementations. The relevance of the work carried out throughout this project resides in the specificity of the study: color is a key characteristic in melanoma inspection. It is usually linked to pattern analysis but seldom the sole object of research. Most lines of work in the field of skin cancer diagnosis associate color with other features such as texture, shape, asymmetry or pattern of the lesion. Studies cement this belief regarding the vital significance of color, as the number of colors in a lesion happens to be the most significant biomarker for determining malignancy. Different image processing techniques will be applied to build statistical models that shape the outcome of the prospective diagnosis. The purpose of the project is the development of an assisting tool able to detect the most prevalent colors in skin pigmented lesions, in order to give a probabilistic result. The strength of this idea lies in the resemblance to actual medical procedures; dermatologists examine color to diagnose melanoma. Simulating medical proceedings is a burgeoning trend in CAD systems because it renders the advancements in this field more likely to be accepted by the medical community. An additional motivation comes from real-life statistics: skin cancer is, by far, the most frequent type of cancer. Moreover, although melanoma is the least common form of skin cancer at only around 1% of all cases, the majority of deaths related to skin cancer are due to melanoma. Furthermore, the rate of melanoma occurrence is particularly high in Spain and has significantly increased in the last decade, hence the importance of reliable diagnosis that is not exclusively contingent on the specialist’s subjective judgment.Ingeniería de Sistemas Audiovisuale

Veiling glare removal: synthetic dataset generation, metrics and neural network architecture

In photography, the presence of a bright light source often reduces the quality and readability of the resulting image. Light rays reflect and bounce off camera elements, sensor or diaphragm causing unwanted artifacts. These artifacts are generally known as "lens flare" and may have different influences on the photo: reduce contrast of the image (veiling glare), add circular or circular-like effects (ghosting flare), appear as bright rays spreading from light source (starburst pattern), or cause aberrations. All these effects are generally undesirable, as they reduce legibility and aesthetics of the image. In this paper we address the problem of removing or reducing the effect of veiling glare on the image. There are no available large-scale datasets for this problem and no established metrics, so we start by (i) proposing a simple and fast algorithm of generating synthetic veiling glare images necessary for training and (ii) studying metrics used in related image enhancement tasks (dehazing and underwater image enhancement). We select three such no-reference metrics (UCIQE, UIQM and CCF) and show that their improvement indicates better veil removal. Finally, we experiment on neural network architectures and propose a two-branched architecture and a training procedure utilizing structural similarity measure