Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-383-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-383-2021
Research article
 | 
30 Jun 2021
Research article |  | 30 Jun 2021

AI-Track-tive: open-source software for automated recognition and counting of surface semi-tracks using computer vision (artificial intelligence)

Simon Nachtergaele and Johan De Grave

Related authors

Extensional exhumation of cratons: insights from the Early Cretaceous Rio Negro–Juruena belt (Amazonian Craton, Colombia)
Ana Fonseca, Simon Nachtergaele, Amed Bonilla, Stijn Dewaele, and Johan De Grave
Solid Earth, 15, 329–352, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-329-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-329-2024, 2024
Short summary
Technical note: Nikon–TRACKFlow, a new versatile microscope system for fission track analysis
Gerben Van Ranst, Philippe Baert, Ana Clara Fernandes, and Johan De Grave
Geochronology, 2, 93–99, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-2-93-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-2-93-2020, 2020
Short summary
Responses of an abyssal meiobenthic community to short-term burial with crushed nodule particles in the south-east Pacific
Lisa Mevenkamp, Katja Guilini, Antje Boetius, Johan De Grave, Brecht Laforce, Dimitri Vandenberghe, Laszlo Vincze, and Ann Vanreusel
Biogeosciences, 16, 2329–2341, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2329-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2329-2019, 2019
Short summary

Related subject area

Fission track
Short communication: Inverse correlation between radiation damage and fission-track etching time on monazite
Toru Nakajima, Shoma Fukuda, Shigeru Sueoka, Sota Niki, Tetsuo Kawakami, Tohru Danhara, and Takahiro Tagami
Geochronology, 6, 313–323, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-6-313-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-6-313-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short communication: Experimental factors affecting fission-track counts in apatite
Carolin Aslanian, Raymond Jonckheere, Bastian Wauschkuhn, and Lothar Ratschbacher
Geochronology, 4, 109–119, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-4-109-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-4-109-2022, 2022
Short summary
Deconvolution of fission-track length distributions and its application to dating and separating pre- and post-depositional components
Peter Klint Jensen and Kirsten Hansen
Geochronology, 3, 561–575, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-561-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-561-2021, 2021
Short summary
Confined fission-track revelation in apatite: how it works and why it matters
Richard A. Ketcham and Murat T. Tamer
Geochronology, 3, 433–464, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-433-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-433-2021, 2021
Short summary
Thermal annealing of implanted 252Cf fission tracks in monazite
Sean Jones, Andrew Gleadow, and Barry Kohn
Geochronology, 3, 89–102, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-89-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-89-2021, 2021
Short summary

Cited articles

Abadi, M., Barham, P., Chen, J., Chen, Z., Davis, A., Dean, J., Devin, M., Ghemawat, S., Irving, G., Isard, M., Kudlur, M., Levenberg, J., Monga, R., Moore, S., Murray, D. G., Steiner, B., Tucker, P., Vasudevan, V., Warden, P., Wicke, M., Yu, Y., and Zheng, X.: TensorFlow: A System for Large-Scale Machine Learning, in: Proceedings of the 12th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI'16), 2–4 November 2016, Savannah, GA, USA, 265–284, 2016. 
Ansberque, C., Chew, D. M., and Drost, K.: Apatite fission-track dating by LA-Q-ICP-MS imaging, Chem. Geol., 560, 119977, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119977, 2021. 
Belloni, F. F., Keskes, N., and Hurford, A. J.: Strategy for fission-track recognition via digital image processing, and computer-assisted track measurement, in: 9th International Conference on Fission-Track Dating and Thermochronology, 6–11 February 2000, Lorne, Australia, Geological Society of Australia Abstracts, 15–17, 2000. 
Bradski, G.: The OpenCV Library, Dr Dobbs J. Softw. Tools, 25, 120–125, https://doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.50.s1.10, 2000. 
Collobert, R., Bengio, S., and Maréthoz, J.: Torch: a modular machine learning software library, IDIAP Res. Rep., IDIAP Research Report, Martigny, Switzerland, 02–46, 2002. 
Download
Short summary
Artificial intelligence techniques are capable of automatically detecting fission tracks in minerals. The AI-Track-tive software presented here can be used to automatically determine fission track densities for apatite fission track dating studies. Apatite fission track dating is mainly applied to tectonic research on exhumation rates in orogens. Time-consuming manual track counting can be replaced by deep neural networks capable of automatically finding the large majority of tracks.