Skeletracks: automatic separation of overlapping fission tracks in apatite and muscovite using image processing
This addresses a major difficulty in automatic track counting for fission-track dating in geology, but it appears incremental as it combines existing image processing techniques.
The paper tackled the problem of separating overlapping fission tracks in apatite and muscovite for automatic track counting by combining image processing algorithms like skeletonization, resulting in successful application to determine the efficiency factor GQR for standardless fission-track dating with densities of about 6×10^5 tracks/cm².
One of the major difficulties of automatic track counting using photomicrographs is separating overlapped tracks. We address this issue combining image processing algorithms such as skeletonization, and we test our algorithm with several binarization techniques. The counting algorithm was successfully applied to determine the efficiency factor GQR, necessary for standardless fission-track dating, involving counting induced tracks in apatite and muscovite with superficial densities of about $6 \times 10^5$ tracks/$cm^2$.