Towards automation of palynology 1: analysis of pollen shape and ornamentation using simple geometric measures,derived from scanning electron microscope images

This is the first of a series of papers on the theme of automated pollen analysis. The automation of pollen analysis could result in numerous advantages for the reconstruction of past environments, with larger data sets made practical, objectivity and fine resolution sampling. There are also applications in apiculture and medicine. Previous work on the classification of pollen using texture measures has been successful with small numbers of pollen taxa. However, as the number of pollen taxa to be identified increases, more features may be required to achieve a successful classification. This paper describes the use of simple geometric measures to augment the texture measures. The feasibility of this new approach is tested using scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of 12 taxa of fresh pollen taken from reference material collected on Henderson Island, Polynesia. Pollen images were captured directly from a SEM connected to a PC. A threshold grey‐level was set and binary images were then generated. Pollen edges were then located and the boundaries were traced using a chain coding system. A number of simple geometric variables were calculated directly from the chain code of the pollen and a variable selection procedure was used to choose the optimal subset to be used for classification. The efficiency of these variables was tested using a leave‐one‐out classification procedure. The system successfully split the original 12 taxa sample into five sub‐samples containing no more than six pollen taxa each. The further subdivision of echinate pollen types was then attempted with a subset of four pollen taxa. A set of difference codes was constructed for a range of displacements along the chain code. From these difference codes probability variables were calculated. A variable selection procedure was again used to choose the optimal subset of probabilities that may be used for classification. The efficiency of these variables was again tested using a leave‐one‐out classification procedure. The proportion of correctly classified pollen ranged from 81% to 100% depending on the subset of variables used. The best set of variables had an overall classification rate averaging at about 95%. This is comparable with the classification rates from the earlier texture analysis work for other types of pollen. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.