how do i count two overlapping cell image as two cells instead of one big cell using image processing tool?

hi, I am a new user of MATLAB image processing tools and i want to process an image of sputum cells sample to detect how many cells are there in one sample image. but in some case, two or more cell are overlap. so how do i detect the cell as two cells overlapping instead of one single big cell.i here attach a sample image. thank you.

Answer 1

[Hasan alomari]

did you try to use erosion ( imerode(im,se))?

[Muhammad Asyraf]

im still trying..thank you..ill let u know if this works for me.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

You can use marker controlled watershed segmentation. See http://www.mathworks.com/products/demos/image/watershed/ipexwatershed.html

Also see Steve's Blog

[Muhammad Asyraf]

thank you i tried watershed but it don't work. :( i might doi it wrong

[Image Analyst]

Sorry about that.