Diatom identification: a double challenge called ADIAC

This paper introduces the project ADIAC (Automatic Diatom Identification and Classification), which started in May 1998 and which is financed by the European MAST (Marine Science and Technology) programme. The main goal is to develop algorithms for an automatic identification of diatoms using image information, both valve shape (contour) and ornamentation. The paper presents the goals of the project as well as first results on shape modeling and contour extraction. Public data are available in order to create student projects beyond the ADIAC partnership.