Commands Overview
Pipeline commands are the building blocks of an analysis. Each command takes either an image or a set of objects as input and produces either a processed image or an updated set of objects as output.
Command Categories
| Category | Colour | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image processing | Grey | Image | Image |
| Edge & feature detection | Grey | Image | Image |
| Segmentation | White | Image | Binary mask |
| Morphology | White | Binary/greyscale image | Image |
| Object processing | Green | Objects | Objects / measurements |
Image Processing
Commands for reducing noise and enhancing signal before segmentation.
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Blur | Box/average blur to reduce noise |
| Gaussian Blur | Edge-preserving Gaussian blur |
| Rolling Ball | Background subtraction |
| Rank Filter | Min / median / max neighbourhood filter |
| Enhance Contrast | Histogram-based contrast enhancement |
| Color Filter | Retain pixels within an HSV colour range |
| Intensity Transform | Brightness and contrast adjustment |
| Median Subtract | Subtract the local median for background removal |
| Image Math | Combine two images mathematically |
| Image Cache | Store or retrieve an image from cache slots |
Edge & Feature Detection
Commands for detecting edges, ridges, and local structures.
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Canny Edge Detection | Gradient-based edge detection with thresholding |
| Sobel Edge Detection | Fast gradient-magnitude edge detection |
| Hessian | Second-order structure (blobs and ridges) |
| Laplacian | Zero-crossing edge detection |
| Structure Tensor | Local orientation and coherence |
| Weighted Deviation | Weighted local standard deviation |
Segmentation
Commands for separating foreground objects from background.
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Threshold | Convert greyscale to binary with manual or automatic threshold |
| Connected Components | Label each connected foreground region |
| Watershed | Split touching objects using intensity valleys |
Morphology
Commands for modifying the shape of binary or greyscale regions.
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Morphological Transform | Erosion, dilation, opening, closing |
Object Processing
Commands that operate on extracted objects.
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Extract ROIs | Convert binary mask regions to segmentation-class objects |
| Classify ROIs | Filter and assign final object classes |
| Colocalization | Find overlapping objects across classes |
| Voronoi | Partition space from object centroids |
| Distance Transform | Measure distances between object pairs |
| Save Image | Write a control image to disk |
Typical Pipeline Order
Image └─ Preprocessing (Blur, Rolling Ball, …) └─ Segmentation (Threshold → Connected Components → Watershed) └─ Extract ROIs └─ Classify ROIs └─ Object Processing (Colocalization, Distance, …) └─ Save Image