enable processing for DIC time lapses

This is a sort of crude and minimal implementation for processing DIC time lapses of agar microchambers such that it could be used to (quickly) process old in-house datasets.

src/chlamytracker/pool_finder.py

@@ -330,6 +330,9 @@ def segment_pools(self, filled_ratio_threshold=0.1):
                 (Nx, Ny): (T, Y, X) bool array
             }
         """
+        # set imaging modality for segmentation
+        modality = "brightfield" if self.is_brightfield else "DIC"
+
         # convert minimum cell diameter to pixelated area
         min_area = self.convert_um_to_px2_circle(self.min_cell_diameter_um)
 
@@ -341,6 +344,7 @@ def segment_pools(self, filled_ratio_threshold=0.1):
             if pool.has_cells():
                 try:
                     pool_segmented = pool.segment(
+                        modality=modality,
                         min_area=min_area,
                         filled_ratio_threshold=filled_ratio_threshold,
                     )

src/chlamytracker/pool_processor.py

@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 import numpy as np
-import skimage as ski
 
 from .stack_processing import (
     circular_alpha_mask,
     gaussian_filter_3d_parallel,
+    get_central_frames,
+    li_threshold_3d,
+    otsu_threshold_3d,
     remove_small_objects_3d_parallel,
     rescale_to_float,
 )
@@ -13,16 +15,16 @@
 class PoolSegmenter:
     """Class for processing timelapse microscopy data of an individual agar microchamber pool.
 
-    TODO: detailed description of what processing steps this class seeks to accomplish.
+    Primary application is for segmenting cells within an individual agar
+    microchamber pool [1]. Performs background subtraction prior to segmentation.
+    Background is estimated as the mean intensity projection.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     raw_data_pool : (T, Y, X) uint16 array
         Input timelapse microscopy image data of an individual agar microchamber
         pool that has been tightly cropped to either manually or e.g. after
         being detected with `PoolFinder.find_pools()`.
-    gaussian_filter_sigma : scalar (optional)
-        Sigma of Gaussian filter for blurring the alpha mask (preprocessing).
     num_workers : int (optional)
         Number of processors to dedicate for multiprocessing.
 
@@ -37,17 +39,11 @@ class PoolSegmenter:
     [1] https://doi.org/10.57844/arcadia-v1bg-6b60
     """
 
-    def __init__(
-        self,
-        raw_data_pool,
-        gaussian_filter_sigma=4,
-        num_workers=6,
-    ):
+    def __init__(self, raw_data_pool, num_workers=6):
         self.raw_data = raw_data_pool.copy()
-        self.gaussian_filter_sigma = gaussian_filter_sigma
         self.num_workers = num_workers
 
-    def has_cells(self, contrast_threshold=0.05):
+    def has_cells(self, contrast_threshold=1e-6):
         """Determine whether pool contains cells.
 
         Determination is based on the amount of contrast in the standard
@@ -56,20 +52,61 @@ def has_cells(self, contrast_threshold=0.05):
         """
         # get dtype limits for normalization
         # (0, 65535) is expected but safer to check
-        dtype_limit_max = max(ski.util.dtype_limits(self.raw_data))
-        # compute the standard deviation projection
-        std_intensity_projection = self.raw_data.std(axis=0)
+        # dtype_limit_max = max(ski.util.dtype_limits(self.raw_data))
+        dtype_limit_max = 1
+        # std projection on smoothed substack
+        num_frames = min(200, self.raw_data.shape[0])
+        central_frames = get_central_frames(self.raw_data, num_frames)
+        central_frames_smoothed = gaussian_filter_3d_parallel(central_frames, sigma=3).std(axis=0)
+        std_projection = central_frames_smoothed.std(axis=0)
         # use variance of intensity as measure of contrast
-        normalized_contrast = std_intensity_projection.var() / dtype_limit_max
+        normalized_contrast = std_projection.var() / dtype_limit_max
         return normalized_contrast > contrast_threshold
 
     @timeit
-    def segment(self, min_area=150, filled_ratio_threshold=0.1, li_threshold=0.1):
-        """"""
+    def segment(
+        self,
+        modality="brightfield",
+        min_area=150,
+        filled_ratio_threshold=0.1,
+        li_threshold=0.1,
+        otsu_thresholding_scale_factor=0.66,
+    ):
+        """Segment cells within a pool.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        modality : str (optional)
+            Imaging modality: either "brightfield" or "DIC".
+        min_area : float (optional)
+            Minimum area (px^2) for object removal.
+        filled_ratio_threshold : float (optional)
+            Threshold used for discarding noisy segmentation results.
+            For reliable cell tracking it is assumed that the pools are
+            quite sparsely populated with cells.
+        li_threshold : float (optional)
+            Initial guess parameter for Li thresholding [1].
+        otsu_thresholding_scale_factor : float (optional)
+            Value for (somewhat arbitrarily) scaling the Otsu threshold.
+            Default value of 0.66 was found to work empirically on a sample
+            of test DIC time lapses.
+
+        References
+        ----------
+        [1] https://scikit-image.org/docs/stable/api/skimage.filters.html#skimage.filters.threshold_li
+        """
         # background subtraction
         background_subtracted = self.subtract_background()
-        # segment cells based on Li thresholding -- more forgiving than Otsu
-        threshold = ski.filters.threshold_li(background_subtracted, initial_guess=li_threshold)
+
+        # set threshold for segmentation based on modality -- Li thresholding
+        # was empirically determined to provide better results on brightfield
+        # microscopy data, while Otsu performed better on DIC
+        if modality == "brightfield":
+            threshold = li_threshold_3d(background_subtracted, initial_guess=li_threshold)
+        else:
+            threshold = otsu_threshold_3d(background_subtracted) * otsu_thresholding_scale_factor
+
+        # apply threshold
         segmentation = background_subtracted > threshold
 
         # apply circular alpha mask to segmentation

src/chlamytracker/timelapse.py

@@ -35,11 +35,13 @@ def __init__(self, nd2_file, use_dask=False, load=True):
 
         # extract relevant metadata from nd2 headers
         with nd2.ND2File(nd2_file) as nd2f:
+            metadata = nd2f.metadata
             voxels_um = nd2f.voxel_size()  # in microns
             sizes = nd2f.sizes  # e.g. {'T': 10, 'C': 2, 'Y': 256, 'X': 256}
             events = nd2f.events()
 
         # convert metadata fields to useful attributes
+        self.metadata = metadata
         self.dimensions = sizes
         self.pixelsize_um = (voxels_um.x + voxels_um.y) / 2
         self.frametimes = np.diff([event["Time [s]"] for event in events])
@@ -55,6 +57,9 @@ def __init__(self, nd2_file, use_dask=False, load=True):
 
         # determine whether timelapse is also a zstack
         self.is_zstack = self.dimensions.get("Z") is not None
+        # determine imaging modality
+        self.modality_flags = self.metadata.channels[0].microscope.modalityFlags[0]
+        self.is_brightfield = "brightfield" in self.modality_flags
 
         # load data from nd2 file
         if load: