Automated Low Cost System for Malaria Diagnosis and Classification
Institutions Involved University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom Anna University, Chennai, India
Objective Design and development of a cellscope with embedded software facility to detect and classify malarial parasite from the blood sample.
UK Principal Investigator: Dr. Izzet KALE Acting Head, Department of Electronic, Network & Computer Engineering Director, Applied DSP and VLSI Research Group, University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish Street, London W1W 6UW ENGLAND, UK. UK Co- Investigator: Dr. Dik Morling Professor Department of Electronic Network and Computer Engineering, University of Westminster UK. UK Student Member: Ms. Saumya Kareem Research Scholar Department of Electronic Network and Computer Engineering, University of Westminster UK.
Indian Principal Investigator: Dr. S. Muttan, Professor, Centre for Medical Electronics Dept of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Anna University, Chennai 600025.
Indian co-investigators Dr.N.Kumaravel Professor of Eminence Centre for Medical Electronics Dept of Electronics and Communication Engineering Anna University Chennai Dr.K.Sankaran Director, Centre for Biotechnology Director, Centre with Potential for Excellence in Environmental Science Coordinator, National Hub for Healthcare Instrumentation Development Professor, Centre for Biotechnology Anna University, Chennai
Indian Student Members Mr.G.Karthik PhD Research Scholar Center for Medical Electronics Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Anna University, Guindy, Chennai -25. Mr.A.Shankar Junior Research Fellow Center for Medical Electronics Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Anna University, Guindy, Chennai -25.
Collaborating Medical Institutes / Experts Dr.Anil J Purty MD, DNB,MNAMs, Professor of Community Medicine and Dean ( PG ) Pondicherry Unit of Medical Sciences ( A Unit of Madras Medical Mission ) Kalapet, Puducherry 605014, India +91 413 2656271 / 72 Fax: 2656273 Mobile: 9442233460
Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences The Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences is a multi-speciality hospital and teaching institute at Kalapet, bordering the state of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry in Southern India. Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences is the culmination of the Madras Medical Mission s far-reaching vision to create a healthier society by providing affordable and exemplary healthcare services, and training young aspirants. Spread across 32 acres of landscaped greenery with a thick, lush border of swaying coconut palms and a breathtaking view of the Coromandel Coast. Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences is located in inspiring settings. The Medical College has state-of-the-art and high-tech facilities. Well- Experienced Faculties have been drawn from all over India. PIMS offers students a stimulating atmosphere to pursue their dreams.
During our visit to the institution, Dr.Anil J Purty MD, DNB,MNAMS, Professor of Community Medicine and Dean ( PG ) Pondicherry Unit of Medical Sciences has ensured that his institution would be willing to associate itself in the following activities in connection with this project i. Malarial specimen shall be made available ii. The institute will facilitate field trials with their expertise iii. Subsequent validation iv. Other related activities
Funding for the project Fund sanctioned from UKIERI to the Indian partner Travel Rs 12,73,510 Project cost Rs 2,41,500 Marketing and promotion Rs 16,100 Contingencies Rs 75,670 Total Rs 16,06,780 19960 (INR 16,06,780)
Funding for for the the project cont.. Actual fund received from UKIERI Rs 8,03,390 as on 22.02.2012 Rs 3,21,356 as on 25.05.2012 Rs 3,19,360 as on 01.03.2013 Total fund received Rs 14,44,106 as on 22.08.2013 Travel : Rs 11,44,577 Project cost : Rs 2,17,050 Marketing and promotion : Rs 14,470 Contingencies : Rs 68,009 Funding spent on the project activities Travel : Rs 2,62,913 Project cost : Nil Marketing and promotion : Nil Contingencies : Nil
Funding for the project cont. Funding committed for the Project timeline Travel : Rs 10,10,597 3 Professors for one week visit 2 Students for two week visit Project cost : Rs 2,41,500 Fabrication charges for developing prototypes of cellscope consisting of cell phones, optical lenses, filters, LEDs, etc out of project cost Marketing and promotion : Rs 16,100 Hosting a workshop Contingencies : Rs 75,670
Funding for the project cont. Any under spent or Overspent foreseen In kind contribution from partnering Institutions NO 1. Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences have agreed to provide the samples for testing and validation. 2. Appasamy Associates, Chennai have agreed to share the Zemax Optical Design software in order to design the optical microscope and subsequently facilitate in the fabrication of the same to interface with the cell phone.
APPASAMY ASSOCIATES PROFILE The firm is involved in the manufacturing of ophthalmic products for over three decades which have been widely appreciated throughout the world. They have a dedicated R & D team to fulfill state of the art requirements of the ophthalmic community. More than 15% expenses are spend on development of new products. The various manufacturing facilities at Chennai and Pondicherry have got quality systems certifications, audited by TUV, DNV and ITC for ISO 9000 and ISO 13485 requirements. The certifications bodies also provided CE marking for various products and CE compliance certifications for Class I products. Our Slit Lamps and Keratometer had been awarded UL mark.
MEETING HELD WITH APPASWAMY ASSOCIATES Dr.N.Kumaravel, Dr.S.Muttan, Mr.G.Karthik of Anna University, Chennai and Mr.S.Sivagnanam, General Manager and Mr.Arvind Kasthuri, Executive Director of Appaswamy Associates had a brief meeting about this project. It has been identified that in order to develop the hardware design a good amount of exposure in the usage of the software named ZEMAX OPTICAL DESIGN is a basic necessity using which the optical concepts of the lens and also the array placements may be studied. Mr.G.Karthik, Research Scholar of our department has been earmarked for this work and he has been actively pursuing this. The properties of light emitting and excitation using filters would also to be studied to appropriately to choose the type of LED. By using this software we can design the proof of concept and then the hardware part is to be done. Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) has been signed between Anna University and Appaswamy Associates, Chennai
Progress and Project outcomes Indian Partner of this Project 1. Developed computer based Image Processing software using Matlab for the Classification of Malaria Species using stained images 2. Doing the design and fabrication of optical scope to be attached with cell phone with the support of M/s Appaswamy Associates using ZEMAX software.
Computer Based Image Processing System
Project Hardware Internal Structure model
Progress and Project outcomes UK Partner of this Project UK partner have successfully developed a real-time mobile application for malaria diagnosis including life stage recognition on an Android platform (Version 2.2 and above) which will run on the Samsung Galaxy, S series, Note and tablets.
UKIERI Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Research Project- Progress from the Westminster UK Team A fully functional malaria diagnosis tool for thin blood slide images has been developed in Matlab which includes: Red Blood Cell Detection and quantification White Blood Cell detection and quantification Infected cell identification. Life stage recognition Parasitemia estimation
UKIERI Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Research Project- Progress from the Westminster Team Cont d.. An effective gametocyte detection set up has been introduced for post treatment malaria diagnosis. Quality analysis of microscopic fluorescent images were carried out which produced promising results and a scope for further research in the area. The research is at its latest phase of Mobile Phone application development.
Real Time Mobile Phone Application for Malaria Diagnosis The objective is to implement the algorithms realised in Matlab on an Android application platform using java to yield real-time performance. A mobile malaria diagnostic application has been developed which will enable real-time diagnosis on Android mobile phones (Version 2.2 and above). The application was written in Java and successfully reproduces the results obtained from our Matlab development environment one to one in real-time. The application has the facility to acquire slide images from the inbuilt phone camera or a file. We are now ready for the optical interface that will turn the mobile phone camera into a microscope being designed by project partners from Anna University to go for field trials.
Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Research Outcomes The application was tested on an android emulator and has been successfully run on Samsung Galaxy Mini, Samsung S2, Samsung S3, Samsung Galaxy Note and Samsung Galaxy Tablet. The approximate time taken for diagnosis is 42-50 seconds. The following slides shows the Screen shot of the application on Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini.
Screen Shot of Android Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Application
Screen Shot of Android Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Application Cntd...
Screen Shot of Android Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Application Cntd...
Screen Shot of Android Mobile Phone Malaria Diagnosis Application Cntd...
Publications These experiments have led to the following publications: S.Kareem, I.Kale, R.C.S Morling, Automated Malaria Parasite Detection in Thin Blood Films:- A Hybrid Illumination and Color Constancy Insensitive, Morphological Approach, presented and published at Asia Pacific Circuits and Systems Conference (APCCAS 2012), December 2012, Taiwan. S.Kareem, I.Kale, R.C.S Morling, A Novel Fully Automated Malaria Diagnostic Tool Using Thin Blood Films presented and published at Pan American Health Care Exchanges (PAHCE2013), in Madellin, Columbia, May 2013 Planned Publications: Mobile Malaria Diagnosis: Real time mobile diagnostic application on Android using Java. Comparative Study on Bright Light Microscopy and Fluorescent Microscopy for Malaria Diagnosis Using Thin Blood Image Analysis Journal on Automated Malaria Diagnosis Using Annular Ring Ratio Method on Peripheral Blood Images
Visits UK team consisting of Prof. Izzet Kale, Prof. Dik Morling and Ms Saumya Kareem paid visit to Anna University on 18 th May 2012.
Visits UK team consisting of Prof. Izzet Kale, Prof. Dik Morling and Ms Saumia Kareem paid visit to Anna University on 18 th May 2012.
Visits UK team consisting of Prof. Izzet Kale, Prof. Dik Morling and Ms Saumia Kareem paid visit to Anna University on 18 th May 2012.
Visits UK team consisting of Prof. Izzet Kale, Prof. Dik Morling and Ms Saumia Kareem paid visit to Anna University on 18 th May 2012. Requirements for the Image Acquisition Hardware: Image Resolution Needs: Based on the physical size of the Red Blood Cells (RBCs) which is 6-8 microns, the resolution of the image is calculated to be approximately 0.25 microns/pixel. To get finer resolution for species recognition, a resolution of 0.125 / pixel will be required) Data transfer: Image data is currently stored and processed in.tif format. Transferring the.tif image using jpeg compression may be an option. Additional requirements include, data transfer from mobile imaging, device to the host device as necessary.
Visits UK team consisting of Prof. Izzet Kale, Prof. Dik Morling and Ms Saumia Kareem paid visit to Anna University on 18 th May 2012. Image data and storage: Provision to store approximately 256 images, each approximately taking 1 MB. 18.05.2012 Venue: Anna University Chennai 10.30.11.30 Meeting the faculty, Interactive session 11.30-13.00 Technical Presentation from Westminster Technical Presentation from Anna Followed by discussions 13.00-14.00 Lunch break 14.00-16.00 Continued Discussions-Topics include; Reflections on the presentations and associated challenges, future visits, setting up a time and action plan on who does what and when 16.00 End of Meeting
Visits Indian team consisting of Prof. N.Kumaravel and Prof. S.Muthan visited University of Westminster during the period from 5-11-2012 to 7-11-2012
Visits Indian team consisting of Prof. N.Kumaravel and Prof. S.Muthan visited University of Westminster during the period from 5-11-2012 to 7-11-2012
Visits Indian team consisting of Prof. N.Kumaravel and Prof. S.Muthan visited University of Westminster during the period from 5-11-2012 to 7-11-2012 Dates Topics 4/11/2012 Arrival -London 5/11/2012 University of Westminster Campus Tour including meeting with Dept of Biosciences 6/11/2012 Presentation- Anna University and University of Westminster Future Work UKIERI Progress report 7/11/2012 Departure
Project outreach No. of exchanges under the project (including academic staff and students) No. of joint publications / research papers One exchange each from the partnering institutions are completed TitIe of Paper: Image analysis for malaria detection and species identification. Date of Publication: May 2012 Media mention / Press release Workshops organised (please include details like no of participants/key people/key speakers and way forward from the workshop) International conference on Recent Trends in Computer Science Engineering (ICRTCSE 2012) Will be done shortly during marketing and promotion by way of hosting a workshop A joint workshop by the partnering institutions will be organized at Anna University, Chennai during Nov / Dec 2013
Future Activities Planned Based on NDA signed between Anna University, Chennai and Appasamy Associates, Chennai, the optical scope is being designed and will be fabricated. The second exchange of visits would be undertaken in the due course which will be used to consolidate this commitment.
Success indicator of the project 1. We have formed core team consists of engineer scientist, clinician to work together towards the development in the direction of the objectives. 2. Image processing software developed in the project is successfully applied to cytological stained samples.
Sustainability of the project after the UKIERI funding finishes 1. The outcome of this project would be a working prototype which will be a handy diagnostic tool to classify malaria. 2. Further, this being a cellscope which is a combination of a cell phone and a microscope its clinical applications are immense with excellent societal needs. 3. This prototype if available in large numbers would certainly be a boon to the third world countries and merit its contribution in the monitoring and eradication of malaria. 4. Industry will take over and many funding agency provide funding support and soft loan for commercialization.
Best practices for working on joint bilateral projects 1. New ideas and approaches to undertake studies in very large areas to do quantitative analysis opening up different avenues to the tools developed. 2. Visits aid better understanding of culture, approaches to problem and identification of common interests.
Issues and Concerns No significant issues and concerns at the moment