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Automated Detection of fresh water Blue-Green

Algae (Cyanobacteria) Using Image Processing
Techniques: A Review

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 International Journal of Current Medical And Applied Sciences, 2016, June, 11(1),05-09.

REVIEW ARTICLE

Automated Detection of fresh water Blue-Green Algae

(Cyanobacteria) Using Image Processing Techniques: A
Review.
Awatef saad1& Ahmed Atia2
1Lecturer, Department of computer sciences, faculty of science, Alzawia University, Libya.
2Lecturer, Department of anaesthesia and intensive care, faculty of Medical technology, Tripoli University, Libya.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract:
Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) can be used as indicators to offer relatively exclusive information pertaining to
ecosystem condition. Cyanobacteria react quickly and predictably to a broad range of pollutant. Thus provides
potentially constructive early caution signals of worsening environment and the possible causes. Previous studies
revealed that most automated analyses and identification of algae images were limited to only one type of algae.
Research on automated recognition system for tropical freshwater algae is still limited. In this review, we will illustrate
the image processing and pattern recognition methods used to detect and classify oscillatoria genus from
cyanobacteria.
Keywords: Automated system - Cyanobacteria –Algae - Image processing - Neural Network.
Introduction:
Algae are a wide range of plants heterogeneous in all competent algae taxonomists. This has led numerous
shapes, sizes, and physiological functions, except that scientists to discover different systems to automated
they contain chlorophyll pigments and others. Algae analyse and classify of algae images [2,3].
include members of the nucleus of a primitive prokaryote An automated computer-based recognition and
such as blue-green algae. Some algae are microscopic, assortment system for fast identification of
whereas others reach up to several meters in length. microorganisms such as various algae will obviously
Algae are abundant in salt water, fresh and stagnant pools decrease the load of routine identifications borne by
of water, lakes, and in humid places or on the rocks. Large taxonomist whose service are required in biological
numbers of algae are also found on soil [1]. diversity studies [4]. Artificial neural network (ANN)
The presence of algae in surface water has been a long- based automated algae recognition is beneficial due to its
standing issue all over the world because of their adverse learning ability from a given dataset, and it does not
effects on the treatment process and quality of drinking require a rule base to conclude outcome. ANN has also
water. The removal and control of algae in the water been utilized extensively to identify several types of algae
treatment industry are important global issues, especially species of lake-water samples, and microorganism. Many
in tropical and semi-tropical zones. However, scientist were extracted a set of convenient features of
identification of algae presents issues in their algae images such as Fourier descriptors, geometrical
classification and the application of the organisms in features, and features characterizing of grey level
environmental experiments. Many reports revealed that distribution in a region to use it for training process of
the usual identification of algae by utilizing microscopy ANN [5,6].
images is time consuming with the overall decrease in

Address for correspondence:

Dr. Ahmed Atia,
Access this Article Online
Lecturer,
Department Of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Website:
Faculty of Medical Technology,
Tripoli University, Libya. www.ijcmaas.com
Email:elbadri83@yahoo.com
How to cite this article:
Awatef Saad & Ahmed Atia: Automated Detection Of fresh water Blue-Green Subject:
Algae (Cyanobacteria) Using Image Processing Techniques: A Review: Medical Sciences
International Journal of current Medical and Applied sciences; 2016,
11(1), 05-09. Quick Response Code

IJCMAAS,E-ISSN:2321-9335,P-ISSN:2321-9327. Page | 05
 Chetana P., KrishnakanthM., Sudha R., Gayathri R., MuruganS.&Mahalakshmi V.
However, work on automated analysis and recognition
of algae images were restricted to some species of algae.
This is because of the difficulties in implementation of
an application that can inspect all types of algae division
due to the differences in algae shapes, properties, and
colours. Until recently, only a few work exist on
automated identification of tropical freshwater algae
[7]. This review will discuss the automated
identification system for tropical freshwater algae.
Blue-Green Algae (Oscillatoria species):
Cyanobacteria, representing some of the most ancient
life forms on earth, are one of the most studied
organisms worldwide [8]. Margulis et al. characterized
them as unusual prokaryotic microorganisms that can
perform oxygenic photosynthesis. They can also
synthesize chlorophyll a. Similar to eukaryotic algae and
plants, cyanobacteria use H2O as an electron donor for
the production of oxygen. The oldest fossil findings of
cyanobacteria can be dated back to approximately 3500
million years ago [9]. On the last decades, cyanobacteria
blooms had given special consideration over worldwide
because of it is highly effects on water environments by
increasing anthropogenic input of nitrogen and
phosphorus. To date, cyanobacteria are still largely
present in oceans, freshwaters, and soils. Most
cyanobacteria live in water as phytoplankton.
Cyanobacteria are often called “blue-green algae” and
are named after the blue pigment phycocyanin, which,
together with chlorophyll a and other pigments, is used
to capture light for photosynthesis [10,11].
Oscillatoriasp is one of the simplest filamentous blue-
green algae, where each thread is surrounded by
gelatinous scabbard, and do not contain different
vesicles. One of the initial signs resulting from the
presence of moderate pollution where it appears in
large numbers, leading to change the colour of the
water. Oscillatoria uses photosynthesis to survive and
reproduce. Each filament of Oscillatoria consists of
trichomes made up of rows of cells. Filaments
commonly exhibit oscillating, sporadic flexing, or gliding
movements under the microscope, especially near the
anterior ends. The filaments are composed of disk-
shaped cells that are wider than they are long. Their end
cells are usually rounded or tapered. Oscillatoria, with
an average size of 7 µm, is an organism that reproduces
by fragmentation and forms long filaments of cells that
can break into fragments called hormogonia, which can
grow into new and longer filaments. Breaks in the
filament usually occur where dead cells (necridia) are
present. Oscillatoriais categorized under the domain of
bacteria because it does not possess membrane-bound
organelles, a nucleus, or an endoplasmic reticulum. In
addition, metabolically active bacteria include those that
are heterotrophic, chemoautotrophic, and
photosynthetic. Oscillatoria is a photosynthetic bacteria
grouped under the kingdom of cyanobacteria. Some
Oscillatoria species, such as Oscillatoriaplantesis, are
consumed for their nutritional contribution and sold as
IJCMAAS, E-ISSN: 2321-9335,P-ISSN:2321-9327.
food, whereas some are useful for nitrogen fixation.
Moreover, some Oscillatoria species are known to
produce hepatotoxins, which damage the liver, and
neurotoxins, which affect the nerve cells. However, no
other useful function has been found for
Oscillatoriacurviceps [12].
Experimental results found many evidences prove that
at least one of molecular mechanisms action consistent
certain known carcinogens, which led researchers to
suspect that these toxins are liver poisons and could
prove significance to humans after continuous low-level
exposure. Given the advantages and disadvantages to
the environment and to living organisms, algae would
be easier to manage if identification and classification
can be done in a more automated and convenient
manner [1].
MATLAB Software:
MATLAB is considering as an object oriented graphical
language, and has an interactive environment for
designing interface and development algorithm to solve
complex engineering problems such as data analysis,
visualization, and numerical computation. Research
reported that using MATLAB to solve the technical
computing problems is faster than using the traditional
programing language such as FORTRAN, and C. MATLAB
included a variety of built in function and procedure
that can be used in for different applications, including;
control design, computational biology, measurements,
image processing, communications, and financial
modelling. The add-on toolboxes which are a collection
of scientific purpose functions was improve MATLAB
environments for solving technical problem in wide
variety application tasks. MATLAB have been enhanced
with several advantages such as features of documents
and sharing projects and research, and it is ability to
integrate the code with other programming language
which facilitates the distribution process for MATLAB
algorithms and applications [13].
MATLAB is included a set of Image processing tools and
function to provide engineers and scientists with a
widespread suite of reliable functions for digital image
processing analysis. Image processing tools integrated
with MATLAB is developed by scientific researcher and
professional technical to reduce the time consuming of
coding and debugging for the essential image processing
tasks. Using built in function of image processing tools is
more reliable and faster than building application from
scratch, it is illustrated a significant results in saving
time and operation cost which enable users to spend
less time in design and coding algorithms. MATLAB also
help user by allowing them to learn and apply
specialized technology in varying area of image
processing approaches [14].
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs):
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is abbreviations for
artificial neural networks which is the scientific field
that model information-processing structures as
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 Logic Publications @ 2016, IJCMAAS, E-ISSN: 2321-9335,P-ISSN:2321-9327.

massively parallel structure similar to human brain.
ANN is usually consisting of several nodes connected
together through adjusted functions to construct the
neural networks. ANN is constructed from three
different layers often which are the input layer, hidden
layer, and output layer. ANN is considering as a
powerful data modeling tool that create a
representation form for complex input / output
relationships [15].
ANN has become increasingly significantly in solving
complex problems which required special consideration
of thinking and decision in many disciplines. ANN is
designed to be used for solving particularly complex
problems related to highly non-linear relationships.
Particularly, ANN has been widely used as scientific
tools in many disciplines to solve different types of
problems, such as identification and control, forecasting,
classification, and optimization because the
heterogeneous systems are extremely difficult to model
in mathematic models. Flexible structure of ANN is
providing simple and reasonable solutions to various
types of problems. In addition, ANNs were commonly
employed in computerized pattern recognition tool for
automated taxonomic identification based on several
types of features such as morphological features, shape
features, etc. ANN is simple has two phases training
phase and decision phase, in training phase learning
process of specific information is performed, and in
decision phase the classification or recognition results is
produced based on the learning phase. In training phase
the internal structure of ANN is adjusted in response to
a representative sample of data patterns for each taxon
to be identified with related information identification
by using the training data [16].
ANN used to generate special mapping form between
input and output variables and produced a complex
arbitrarily for nonlinear decision boundaries. Mostly
neural network complexity increases with the number
of nodes and layers of net. Neural networks usually use
the sequential training process to observe data, and
distinguish between patterns of interest that makes
them an efficient pattern recognizer [17].
ANN is developed to perform specific information
computation which totally different from conventional
methods. Neural networks construct from nodes with
numerous simple elements that process individually
several aspects of a large problem. A processing element
(PE) is used to multiply the input elements by a set of
weights, to transfer the results into nonlinear outputs
values. Neural computation is represented a massive
interconnection among PEs to share the load of overall
processing task, and adaptive nature of the parameters
(weights) with PEs. ANN usually has several different
layers of PEs as shown in figure 1. Neural network
works to find optimal solution based on a measurement
of its performance by adapting its weights during
training process. ANN performance for a supervised
learning is measured in terms of error criteria, a desired
signal, and iteration cycles or epoch, whereas the
performance for unsupervised ANN is measured based
on learning law, and topology constraints [18].

Figure 1: A simple multilayer MLP neural networks. The circles are represents PEs which arranged in
different layers. The input is the left node, hidden layer are the two columns in the middle, and
outputs is represented by the right nodes in last column. The lines that connected between PEs is
represented the weighted or sometimes known as a scaling factor.

MLP Neural Networks: achieve classification tasks with a great accuracy.

MLP is one type of feed-forward ANN model which used
to map the input sets of data into a set of appropriate
output or desired results. MLP designed with multiple
node layers in a directed graph where each layer fully
connected to the next layer. Each node in MPL ANN is
represented a neuron, or processing element with a
nonlinear activation function that control the process of
weight adjusted except input nodes. Layers of MPL ANN
are important in solution, and optimization results,
where one or two hidden layers are nearly sufficient to
Increasing number of hidden layers is considered a
disadvantageous because the training process will need
extra times which can effects network performance. The
input layer in MPL ANN are denoted the set of
information or data need to be processed by multiplied
it with the weight of hidden layers of network. This
procedure is repeated many times until the desired
results obtain which considered the learning process for
the network. A few learning algorithms are exist
recently which available to obtain the correct values for

International Journal of Current Medical And Applied Sciences [IJCMAAS], Volume: 11, Issue: 1.
 Awatef Saad & Ahmed Atia
the weights, the supervised and unsupervised learning
paradigm is the common methods employed to adjust
the networks weight values [18].
MLP is used a back propagation technique as supervised
learning for training the ANN network. MLP is
considered as one of the most neural network
topologies used widely for general application purpose,
for example MLP with two hidden layers can be used as
general purpose for statistic pattern classifier. In other
words, discriminant functions of MPL are used to
cluster a set of input data which can be taken any shape
[19].
Furthermore, researcher found that MLP is usually
achieves better performance in computing the
maximum posteriori receiver which optimize the
classification tasks especially when weights are
normalized properly including output classes which
usually normalize into 0 or 1 values. MLP has the ability
also of approximating arbitrary functions, this capability
is important on design nonlinear dynamics system [20].
MLPs are trained normally by using the back
propagation algorithm which depends on propagation
the rules to optimize errors through the network by
automated for weight of hidden PEs. MLP neural
network mostly trains by using error correction of
learning procedure, where perceptron elements of a
given layer connected with all other elements of next
layer, and the desired values must be initializing at early
stages. Each input data sets need to be associated with
desired outputs data set which considers the heart of
pattern recognition process because the ANN is usually
used to transfer the input data sets into appropriate
values during training phase [21].
MPL ANN is first start off by defining the initial
estimates of the correct output, then the process of
weight randomize for the input pattern presented. The
main difference between the actual network output and
desired output is evaluated during training process [22].
The average squared error between actual output and
target value is minimized as much as possible by
network. This minimization process of networks is used
a gradient descent in MLP ANN, which obtains the
common back propagation algorithm for training neural
networks. Gradient descent is used mostly to find the
minimum values of a function by taking steps to the
negative function of the gradient at current point [23].
Back propagation method is a common method used for
learning the MPL ANN. This technique of calculating the
derivatives in a computationally efficient manner has a
graphical interpretation and operates by propagating
error backwards from output nodes to inner nodes.
Momentum learning is commonly applied in this
process. This type of learning is used to prevent the
network and the system from converging to a local
minimum or saddle point. It also allows changes to
persist for a number of adjustment cycles and takes into
account the previous weight change [24].
Logic Publications @ 2016, IJCMAAS, E-ISSN: 2321-9335,P-ISSN:2321-9327.
Conclusion:
It has been demonstrated in this review that the
automated detection of Blue-Green Algae is both
substantial and reasonably practicable. Mostly, by using
the ANN, a high rate of identification and classification
of cyanobacteria and algae was achieved. Algae play a
substantial part in the determination of water quality in
freshwater lakes. Algae are found to affect the water
properties and chemical compounds which may cause
conceivable hazards for human health. Many studies
have been done on cyanobacteria to explore more about
its features, category, and effect in the environments,
but there are limited studies on many aspects of tropical
freshwater algae. Recently, the pre-processing image
technique are increased the appearance of
cyanobacteria significantly and the process of automatic
detection is currently being enhanced to detect all
common Blue-Green Algae.
Acknowledgments:
We thank all our present and previous collaborators
and colleagues.
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Conflict of interest: None declared
No source of funding.