Diagnostic pathology, historically dependent on visual scrutiny by experts, is essential for disease detection. Advances in digital pathology and developments in computer vision technology have led to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in this field. Despite these advancements, the variability in pathologists’ subjective interpretations of diagnostic criteria can lead to inconsistent outcomes. To meet the need for precision in cancer therapies, there is an increasing demand for accurate pathological diagnoses. Consequently, traditional diagnostic pathology is evolving towards “next-generation diagnostic pathology”, prioritizing on the development of a multi-dimensional, intelligent diagnostic approach. Using nonlinear optical effects arising from the interaction of light with biological tissues, multiphoton microscopy (MPM) enables high-resolution label-free imaging of multiple intrinsic components across various human pathological tissues. AI-empowered MPM further improves the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis, holding promise for providing auxiliary pathology diagnostic methods based on multiphoton diagnostic criteria. In this review, we systematically outline the applications of MPM in pathological diagnosis across various human diseases, and summarize common multiphoton diagnostic features. Moreover, we examine the significant role of AI in enhancing multiphoton pathological diagnosis, including aspects such as image preprocessing, refined differential diagnosis, and the prognostication of outcomes. We also discuss the challenges and perspectives faced by the integration of MPM and AI, encompassing equipment, datasets, analytical models, and integration into the existing clinical pathways. Finally, the review explores the synergy between AI and label-free MPM to forge novel diagnostic frameworks, aiming to accelerate the adoption and implementation of intelligent multiphoton pathology systems in clinical settings.

Polarization imaging has the advantage of detecting artificial targets based on their intrinsic characteristics. However, with the development of camouflage materials and camouflage shielding performance, the anti-optical detection technology for camouflaged targets continues to improve. In this paper, we combine the advantages of polarization imaging and deep learning to achieve rapid detection of artificial targets camouflaged in natural scenes. Firstly, we propose a Stokes-vector-based parameter image to show the polarization specificity of the camouflaged artificial targets. Then, a detection method is proposed, which uses an Otsu segmentation algorithm and morphological operations to extract polarization signatures of the target from the proposed parameter image, and utilizes the extracted polarization signatures to highlight the camouflaged artificial targets. Finally, we improve a self-supervised deep learning network to enhance the low-light images, extending the application of our method into low illumination environment target detection. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can effectively detect the camouflaged artificial targets with a detection rate better than 80%, which has potential application value in the fields of military target detection, security monitoring, and remote sensing.

Stitched fluorescence microscope images inevitably exist in various types of stripes or artifacts caused by uncertain factors such as optical devices or specimens, which severely affects the image quality and downstream quantitative analysis. Here, we present a deep learning-based Stripe Self-Correction method, so-called SSCOR. Specifically, we propose a proximity sampling scheme and adversarial reciprocal self-training paradigm that enable SSCOR to utilize stripe-free patches sampled from the stitched microscope image itself to correct their adjacent stripe patches. Comparing to off-the-shelf approaches, SSCOR can not only adaptively correct non-uniform, oblique, and grid stripes, but also remove scanning, bubble, and out-of-focus artifacts, achieving the state-of-the-art performance across different imaging conditions and modalities. Moreover, SSCOR does not require any physical parameter estimation, patch-wise manual annotation, or raw stitched information in the correction process. This provides an intelligent prior-free image restoration solution for microscopists or even microscope companies, thus ensuring more precise biomedical applications for researchers.

The spectral information contained in the hyperspectral images (HSI) distinguishes the intrinsic properties of a target from the background, which is widely used in remote sensing. However, the low imaging speed and high data redundancy caused by the high spectral resolution of imaging spectrometers limit their application in scenarios with the real-time requirement. In this work, we achieve the precise detection of camouflaged targets based on snapshot multispectral imaging technology and band selection methods in urban-related scenes. Specifically, the camouflaged target detection algorithm combines the constrained energy minimization (CEM) algorithm and the improved maximum between-class variance (OTSU) algorithm (t-OTSU), which is proposed to obtain the initial target detection results and adaptively segment the target region. Moreover, an object region extraction (ORE) algorithm is proposed to obtain a complete target contour that improves the target detection capability of multispectral images (MSI). The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has the ability to detect different camouflaged targets by using only four bands. The detection accuracy is above 99%, and the false alarm rate is below 0.2%. The research achieves the effective detection of camouflaged targets and has the potential to provide a new means for real-time multispectral sensing in complex scenes.

Although multispectral and hyperspectral imaging acquisitions are applied in numerous fields, the existing spectral imaging systems suffer from either low temporal or spatial resolution. In this study, a new multispectral imaging system—camera array based multispectral super resolution imaging system (CAMSRIS) is proposed that can simultaneously achieve multispectral imaging with high temporal and spatial resolutions. The proposed registration algorithm is used to align pairs of different peripheral and central view images. A novel, super-resolution, spectral-clustering-based image reconstruction algorithm was developed for the proposed CAMSRIS to improve the spatial resolution of the acquired images and preserve the exact spectral information without introducing false information. The reconstructed results showed that the spatial and spectral quality and operational efficiency of the proposed system are better than those of a multispectral filter array (MSFA) based on different multispectral datasets. The PSNR of the multispectral super-resolution images obtained by the proposed method were respectively higher by 2.03 and 1.93 dB than those of GAP-TV and DeSCI, and the execution time was significantly shortened by approximately 54.55 s and 9820.19 s when the CAMSI dataset was used. The feasibility of the proposed system was verified in practical applications based on different scenes captured by the self-built system.