Automated tuberculosis screening

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for determining a number of mycobacteria in source image data of a sputum-smear sample are provided. First image data is extracted from the source image data of the sputum-smear sample. Binary image data is created from the extracted first image data. A plurality of groups of blobs is identified in the created binary image data. A distance between a pair of the identified plurality of groups of blobs is determined. If the distance is below a threshold value, the pair is combined as a single group of blobs. The determining is repeated for pairs of the identified plurality of groups of blobs, and the remaining groups of blobs are then classified.