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Software developed that can count hairs
Melbourne, Nov 03, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) --
Researches in Australia have developed a new software that can count hairs in a patch of skin and can also help in testing the effectiveness of baldness treatments and depilatory creams.
Researchers from CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences in Sydney have reported their findings in the November issue of the journal "Skin Research and Technology." The software, developed in partnership with a UK company, will make it easier for researchers developing hair removal creams to accurately assess how well they work, image analyst Pascal Vallotton was quoted saying in ABC report here.
"Up to now they were counting the number of hairs that survived after treatment manually. That's hard work and it's difficult because you may count a hair twice or you may miss it, so image analysis offers distinct advantages because you always get the same counts and you get the right counts" he said.
The software relies on images captured by a small flatbed scanner pressed onto the skin. Using a mathematical algorithm, the software then identifies and traces each individual hair based on an understanding of a hair's unique features, such as its relative straightness.
The software is able to distinguish between hairs and other features on the skin such as wrinkles, wounds or moles. "We have a lot of defects in our skin irregularities that make it difficult to say this is a hair or this is a wrinkle," Vallotton said adding comparison between earlier and later images can also determine if hair is growing quickly or slowly. Unfortunately, to check the accuracy of the software, the researchers still had to resort to the old-fashioned method of counting hairs, helped by volunteers from neighbouring labs who put their skins on the line for science.
"We had twelve volunteers, mostly from neighbouring labs, and we acquired images of hair before and after [treatment]," Vallotton said.
To ensure an accurate count, the individual hairs had to be manually marked off as they were counted, but after such a labourious process, the researchers were pleased to discover the software results were comparable to the manual count.
Vallotton said the software could also be useful in testing the effectiveness of balding treatments and counting or tracing substances other than hairs, that are long and thin and otherwise difficult to image.
For example, it could be used to work out the number of neurons in a cell sample or to trace biological polymers such as long strings of protein, he said.
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