GRAYSCALE CONVERSION OF HISTOPATHOLOGICAL SLIDE IMAGES AS A PREPROCESSING STEP FOR IMAGE SEGMENTATION

This paper presents a method of converting color images of histopathological slides to grayscale as a preprocessing step for image segmentation. The method utilizes the characteristics of these images to minimize information loss during conversion. It employs a global mapping scheme ensuring that the same color does not map to two different grayscale values. By adding color information to brightness, the method reduces information loss, with weights for the added color depending on pixel distribution in the images. The technique was tested on a large set of histopathological slide images, yielding convincing results, some of which are published herein.