myStone: a real time kidney stone classification
Quickness, accuracy and a lower price are the main advantages of myStone, a device made to classify kidney stones and support urologists. It is a fact that around 12% population suffer from kidney stones at some point in their lives and it is known that this rate is increasing globally. These stones are formed by substances such as calcium or oxalate and they may be presented in different sizes, shapes, colours and textures depending on their chemical components. It implies the existence of different classes of stones that must be treated differently. Therefore, a good classification of each variety is essential for urologists to determine proper dietetic recommendations. Owing to that, Joan Serrat and Felipe Lumbreras researchers at CVC and professors at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) along with Francisco Blanco, Manuel Valiente and Montserrat López-Mesas from Research Group of Separation Techniques in Chemistry (also UAB), have developed myStone, a first approach to automate the visual classification of urinary calculi. According to their paper myStone: A system for automatic kidney stone classification, this device and software captures images of expelled stones and automatically classifies them according to their components.