Generator Platform of Benchmark Time-Lapsed Images Development of Cell Tracking Algorithms : Implementation of New Features Towards a Realistic Simulation of the Cell Spatial and Temporal Organization

Abstract

Recent developments in live-cell microscopy imaging have led to the emergence of Single Cell Biology. This field has also been supported by the development of cell segmentation and tracking algorithms for data extraction. The validation of these algorithms requires benchmark databases, with manually labeled or artificially generated images, so that the ground truth is known. To generate realistic artificial images, we have developed a simulation platform capable of generating biologically inspired objects with various shapes and size, which are able to grow, divide, move and form specific clusters. Using this platform, we compared four tracking algorithms: Simple Nearest-Neighbor (NN), NN with Morphology (NNm) and two DBSCAN-based methodologies. We show that Simple NN performs well on objects with small velocities, while the others perform better for higher velocities and when objects form clusters. This platform for benchmark images generation and image analysis algorithms testing is openly available at (http://griduni.uninova.pt/Clustergen/ClusterGen_v1.0.zip).