1. The use of image data to quantify, study and compare variation in the colours and patterns of organisms requires the alignment of images to establish homology, followed by colour‐based segmentation of images. Here, we describe an R package for image alignment and segmentation that has applications to quantify colour patterns in a wide range of organisms.
2. patternize is an R package that quantifies variation in colour patterns obtained from image data. patternize first defines homology between pattern positions across specimens either through manually placed homologous landmarks or automated image registration. Pattern identification is performed by categorizing the distribution of colours using an RGB threshold, k‐means clustering or watershed transformation.
3. We demonstrate that patternize can be used for quantification of the colour patterns in a variety of organisms by analysing image data for butterflies, guppies, spiders and salamanders. Image data can be compared between sets of specimens, visualized as heatmaps and analysed using principal component analysis.
4. patternize has potential applications for fine scale quantification of colour pattern phenotypes in population comparisons, genetic association studies and investigating the basis of colour pattern variation across a wide range of organisms.

中文翻译：

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patternize：用于量化颜色图案变化的R包。

1. 使用图像数据来量化，研究和比较生物的颜色和图案变化时，需要对齐图像以建立同源性，然后进行基于颜色的图像分割。在这里，我们描述了一种用于图像对齐和分割的R包，该包具有定量多种生物中颜色图案的应用。
2. patternize是一个R包，用于量化从图像数据获得的颜色图案的变化。图案化首先通过手动放置的同源地标或自动图像配准来定义样本之间的图案位置之间的同源性。模式识别是通过使用RGB阈值，k均值聚类或分水岭变换对颜色分布进行分类来执行的。
3. 我们证明通过分析蝴蝶，孔雀鱼，蜘蛛和sal的图像数据，patternize可以用于量化多种生物中的颜色模式。可以在样品组之间比较图像数据，将其可视化为热图，并使用主成分分析进行分析。
4. patternize在人群比较，遗传关联研究以及调查各种生物的颜色模式变化的基础方面，具有用于颜色模式表型的精细规模量化的潜在应用。