Segmental HOG: new descriptor for glomerulus detection in kidney microscopy image

Background The detection of the glomeruli is a key step in the histopathological evaluation of microscopic images of the kidneys. However, the task of automatic detection of the glomeruli poses challenges owing to the differences in their sizes and shapes in renal sections as well as the extensive variations in their intensities due to heterogeneity in immunohistochemistry staining. Although the rectangular histogram of oriented gradients (Rectangular HOG) is a widely recognized powerful descriptor for general object detection, it shows many false positives owing to the aforementioned difficulties in the context of glomeruli detection.