Tongue texture analysis and discrimination algorithm based on the hyperspectral image

Tongue diagnosis is an important diagnostic method in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, due to its qualitative, subjective and experience-based nature, traditional tongue diagnosis limits application in clinical medicine. To solve the problems of current tongue texture analysis methods, a hyperspectral imaging system instead of a digital camera was used to capture tongue images and a novel algorithm for automatic tongue texture analysis based on the Gabor filters was presented. In this algorithm, tongue texture features were derived from both individual bands and combinations of bands of the hyperspectral tongue images. The automatic tongue texture analysis and discrimination results of the new method are better than the results based on the digital camera images.