Advanced Helminth Eggs Detection

The duo formed by the HEAD-YOLO Software, a combination of the Software for the Automatic Detection of Helminth Eggs (HEAD) and the latest version of the You Only Look Once (YOLO) neural network, allows the identification and quantification of image patterns that serve to detect the objects for which they were trained. Its installation and application is performed locally on a personal computer running Windows.

At the same time, HEAD has the advantage of eliminating the main source of errors that affect the reliability of helminth eggs detection, leading to more accurate results and a better monitoring of the quality of different environmental samples as well as the performance of treatment processes.

As a result, the use of HEAD reduces analytical costs, and renders accessible to a wider community the prompt and reliable detection of helminth eggs. HEAD-YOLO is an image processing software that identifies and quantifies nine species of helminth eggs.

They were selected for their medical importance and frequency in environmental samples such as wastewater, sludge, biosolids, soil, and excreta. Among these species are: Ascaris spp., Infertile Ascaris, Toxocara spp., Taenia spp., Hymenolepis diminuta, Hymenolepis nana, Trichuris spp. or Calodium hepaticum, Schistosoma spp., and Fasciola hepatica.