Table Of ContentAutomatic Fish Counting in Aquariums
Francisco João Lourenço Silvério
Thesis to obtain the Master of Science Degree in
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Supervisor(s): Prof. João Nuno de Oliveira e Silva
Dr. José Almeida Cruz
Examination Committee
Chairperson: Prof. Nuno Cavaco Gomes Horta
Supervisor(s): Prof. João Nuno de Oliveira e Silva
Member of the Committee: Prof. Paulo Luis Serras Lobato Correia
May 2016
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TotheonesIlove
“Thisisnottheend,Noteventhe
beginningoftheend,Buttheend
ofthebeginning.”
-SirWinstonChurchill
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Acknowledgments
IwouldfirstliketoexpressmydeepgratitudetoChampalimaudFoundationCentrefortheUnknownfor
havinggivenmetheopportunityofdevelopingsuchaninterestingandmotivatingproject.
Also,Iwouldliketotakethischancetodemonstratemymostsinceregratitudeanddeepconsidera-
tiontomyextremelydedicatedsupervisors. ProfessorJoa˜oNunoSilvawhowasessentialinaccepting
me as a Master student of his, for enlightening me with his precious insights, guidance and always act
in my best interest. Dr. Jose´ Cruz, who was crucial in guaranteeing the cooperation with Champali-
maudFoundation,forhisextremelyimportanttechnicalinputsinthisprojectaswellashisavailabilityto
discussanydifficultiesthateventuallycameup.
AnaCatarinaCertal,JoanaMonteiroandallthestaffattheChampalimaudFoundationFishFacility
fortheirconstantavailabilityandcooperationinvideorecordingofthefish.
Ricardo Ribeiro, Carlos Ma˜o-de-Ferro and Alexandre Laborde, who I now consider as friends, for
beingsosupportiveandcooperativeduringmycollaborationattheNeurosciences’SoftwarePlatform.
AnotherspecialwordofthankfulnessdirectedtothefriendsIhadthepossibilitytomakeatInstituto
SuperiorTe´cnico. Idothoroughlybelievethatallthosememorablemomentsandadventuresweshared
willneverperishintime. Amongthesefriends,thereareuniquepeoplewhodeserveaspecialmention
for the deep friendship. Miguel Cirne with who I had the privilege to meet at the very beginning of
mypresenceatInstitutoSuperiorTe´cnicoandworkinextremelydemandingprojectsinwhichwecould
alwayssucceedwithdeepcommitmentanddedication. Ididalsohavetheopportunitytoknowandwork
with Miguel Fernandes with who I fought so many difficult battles throughout our engineering degree.
Thethreeofuscouldlearnandgrowtogetherasengineersbut,aboveall,aspersonsandIbelievethat
thisfriendshipwilllast.
Itakethisopportunitytoexpressmymostdeepestgratitudetomyspecialone,AnaFerreira. Words
arenotenoughtodescribehowspecialandimportantshewasduringmydegree,givingmehersupport,
patience,unconditionalloveandbydemonstratingherextremebeliefinmewhenIneededitthemost.
Finally, I conclude with a few words for my family. First I would like to express my gratitude to my
brother Joa˜o for representing an example for me of the engineer I would like to be one day, for the
technicalhelphecouldprovidemeduringthepastyearsandforbeingthereformeasanolderbrother.
To my sister Joana, who always stood beside me as a second mother from the very beginning of my
academic path and for the constant encouragement and motivation she could always transmit to me.
Por u´ltimo escrevo umas palavras para a minha ma˜e, Irene assim como para o meu pai, Fernando.
E´ aos meus pais que devo tudo aquilo que consegui alcanc¸ar ate´ hoje tanto a n´ıvel pessoal como
profissional. Semoseuapoio,incentivo,exemplo,sacrif´ıcio,plenaconfianc¸anasminhascapacidadese
asuapreocupac¸a˜oconstantecomaminhaeducac¸a˜o,na˜oteriasidoposs´ıvelconcluirestata˜ohe´rculea
etapa. E´ destaforma,agradecendoecomorgulho,quelhesdedicoestadissertac¸a˜o. Obrigado.
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Resumo
Fishfacilitiesportodoomundorecorremapeixeszebra(zebrafish)paraefectuarexperieˆncias. Aolongo
da sua vida, os peixes zebra sa˜o mantidos em aqua´rios e necessitam de ser contados, manualmente,
oqueconstituiumatarefamorosaequeesta´ sujeitaaerros.
Estetrabalhoapresentaumsistemaautoma´ticodecontagemdepeixeseumalgoritmobaseadoem
visa˜ocomputacionalpararealizaratarefa. Oalgoritmoutilizate´cnicasstandarddevisa˜ocomputacional
como subtrac¸a˜o de fundo, isolamento de blobs e compensac¸a˜o de reflexo˜es de forma a realizar uma
contagem mais precisa. Dado que as fish facilities teˆm mu´ltiplas categorias de peixes, o algoritmo
propostofoicalibradoparagarantirosmelhoresresultadosparamaisdoqueumacategoria.
Esteprojectoincluitambe´modesign,desenvolvimentoeimplementac¸a˜odeumsistemadehardware
completocomoobjectivodeadquirirvideosdepeixesdentrodeaqua´rios. Experieˆnciasrealizadasem
amostrasdevideoreaisdemonstramqueoalgoritmopropostoestimacomsucessoonu´merodepeixes
num tanque com uma margem de erro de aproximadamente 15% do nu´mero real. Relativamente ao
tempodeexecuc¸a˜odoalgoritmo,concluiu-sequeotemponecessa´rioparaestimaronu´merodepeixes
e´,emgeral,inferioraotempoquete´cnicosespecializadosdemoramarealizarumacontagemmanual.
Como trabalho futuro, a identicac¸a˜o de diferentes tipos de feno´tipos assim como a contagem do
nu´merodemachoefeˆmeasemaqua´rios,sa˜oexemplosdeideiasinteressantesquepodemserimple-
mentadasnestetipodeaplicac¸o˜es.
Palavras-chave:
visa˜ocomputacional,contagemdepeixeszebra,subtrac¸a˜odefundo,opti-
calflow,momentosdeHu,processamentodeimagem
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Abstract
Fishfacilitiesaroundtheworldresorttozebrafishtoperformexperiments. Duringtheirlifetime,fishare
maintained in tanks and need to be manually counted representing a time consuming and error prone
task.
This work presents an automatic fish counting setup and a computer vision based algorithm to per-
form the task. The algorithm uses image processing methods such as background subtraction, blob
isolationandmirroringcompensationtoperformamoreprecisefishcounting.
Sincefishfacilitieshavemultiplecategoriesoffish,theproposedalgorithmwascalibratedtoguaran-
tee the best results for more than one category. Moreover, this project does also comprise the design,
developmentandimplementationofafullhardwaresetupforthevideorecordingoffishinsidetanks.
Experimentsonrealvideosamplesshowthattheproposedalgorithmcansuccessfullyestimatethe
numberoffishinatankwithanerrormarginbelow15%oftherealfishnumberinsideatank.
Regarding algorithm execution time, we could conclude that the time needed to output an estimate
ofthenumberoffishinatankislowerthanthemanualcountingperformedbytechnicians.
Infuturework, theidentificationofmultiplephenotypesaswellascountingthenumberofmaleand
femaleinsidetanks,areexamplesofveryinterestingideaswhichshouldbeimplementedinthistypeof
solution.
Keywords:
computer vision, zebrafish counting, background subtraction, optical flow, Hu mo-
ments,imageprocessing
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Description:beginning of the end, But the end . This work presents an automatic fish counting setup and a computer vision based algorithm to per- form the task.
