The tongue color is a mirror that reflects the health status of a patient. It could be used in diagnosing some diseases without any physical contact with the patient, which facilitates the process of primary healthcare. There are many studies that based on the analysis of tongue color, some of which have been addressed in this study. This study also reviewed many recent studies that were conducted in automated tongue diagnosis (ATD) and summarizes the performance of these studies in a table regarding the used methods, tools, ROIs, diagnoses of diseases and algorithms as well as the results obtained. Also, this study represents a comparative review of the recent studies while emphasizing their merits and demerits.

1.
R. F. M., M. M. A. and
And Amal Adnan
Ashour
(
2021
) ‘
Internet of Things and Synergic Deep Learning Based Biomedical Tongue Color Image Analysis for Disease Diagnosis and Classification
’,
IEEE
,
9
, pp.
94769
94779
.
2.
G.
Umadevi
,
V.
Malathy
and
M.
Anand
(
2019
) ‘
Diagnosis of Diabetes from Tongue Image Using Versatile Tooth-Marked Region Classification
’,
TEST Engineering & Management
,
81
, pp.
5953
5965
.
3.
Balkrishna B.
Gabhale
,
Meenal S.
Shinde
,
Ashwini M.
Kamble
,
M. V. C. K.
Student
(
2017
) ‘
Tongue Image Analysis with Color and Gist Features for Diabetes Diagnosis
.’,
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)
,
4
(
4
), pp.
523
526
. doi: .
4.
Banu
,
R.
and
Devi
,
G. U.
(
2016
)
‘Diagnosis of Diabetes Using Tongue Color Analysis’
,
4
(
5
), pp.
69
71
.
5.
Bo
Pang
,
David
Zhang
, K. W. a (
2005
) ‘
Tongue image analysis for appendicitis diagnosis
’,
Information Sciences
,
175(L
), pp.
160
176
.
6.
Chen
,
H.
,
Jiang
,
S. C. C.
and
Lee
,
C. L. C. L. J.
(
2021
)
‘Computational tongue color simulation in tongue diagnosis’
, (July), pp.
1
14
. doi: .
7.
Cheng
,
M. H.
,
Hu
,
M. C.
and
Lan
,
K. C.
(
2017
) ‘
Tongue fur detection on the smartphone
’,
Proceedings - 2016 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, BIBM 2016
, pp.
1365
1371
. doi: .
8.
Chiu
,
C. C.
(
2000
) ‘
A novel approach based on computerized image analysis for traditional Chinese medical diagnosis of the tongue
’,
Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine
,
61
(
2
), pp.
77
89
. doi: .
9.
Horzov
,
L.
et al (
2021
) ‘
Analysis of Tongue Color-Associated Features among Patients with PCR- Confirmed COVID-19 Infection in Ukraine
’,
Association of Support to Oral Health Research - APESB
, pp.
1
11
.
10.
Jiang
,
L.
,
Xu
,
W.
and
Chen
,
J.
(
2008
) ‘
Digital imaging system for physiological analysis by tongue colour inspection
’,
2008 3rd IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, ICIEA 2008
, pp.
1833
1836
. doi: .
11.
Jiang
,
B.
et al (
2012
) ‘
Integrating next-generation sequencing and traditional tongue diagnosis to determine tongue coating microbiomee
’,
scientific reports
, pp.
1
12
.
12.
Jung
,
C. J.
et al (
2012
) ‘
Review on the current trends in tongue diagnosis systems
’,
Integrative Medicine Research
,
1
(
1
), pp.
13
20
. doi: .
13.
Jung
,
C. J.
et al (
2014
) ‘
Improving color and shape repeatability of tongue images for diagnosis by using feedback gridlines
’,
European Journal of Integrative Medicine
,
6
(
3
), pp.
328
336
. doi: .
14.
Li
,
Q.
et al (
2010
) ‘
AOTF based hyperspectral tongue imaging system and its applications in computer- aided tongue disease diagnosis
’,
Proceedings - 2010 3rd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, BMEI 2010, 4(Bmei
), pp.
1424
1427
. doi: .
15.
Li
,
Q.
and
Liu
,
Z.
(
2009
) ‘
Tongue color analysis and discrimination based on hyperspectral images
’,
Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics
,
33
(
3
), pp.
217
221
. doi: .
16.
Lu
,
Y.
et al (
2018
) ‘
DCCN : A DEEP-COLOR CORRECTION NETWORK FOR TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE TONGUE IMAGES Signal & Information Processing Lab, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
’,
2018 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo Workshops (ICMEW)
, pp.
1
6
.
17.
Parcus
,
R.
et al (
2017
) ‘
Development of a Mobile Phone Based Tongue Image Acquisition System
’.
18.
Park
,
Y. J.
et al (
2016
) ‘
Reliability and validity of tongue color analysis in the prediction of symptom patterns in terms of East Asian Medicine
’,
Journal of traditional Chinese medicine=Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan / sponsored by All-China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine
,
36
(
2
), pp.
165
172
. doi: .
19.
Safia
Naveed
, G. G. and L. S. (
2020
)
‘Early Diabetes Discovery From Tongue Images’
, 0, pp.
1
14
.
20.
Srividhya
E
, M. A. (
2019
) ‘
Feature Extraction of Tongue Diseases Diagnosis Using SVM Classifier
’,
IEEE
, pp.
260
263
.
21.
Tania
,
M. H.
,
Lwin
,
K.
and
Hossain
,
M. A.
(
2019
) ‘
Integrative Medicine Research Advances in automated tongue diagnosis techniques
’,
Integrative Medicine Research
,
8
(
1
), pp.
42
56
. doi: .
22.
Usharani
Thirunavukkarasu
, 1
Snekhalatha
Umapathy
, 1
Palani Thanaraj
Krishnan
, 2 and
Kumar
Janardanan
3 (
2019
) ‘
Human Tongue Thermography Could Be a Prognostic Tool for Prescreening the Type II Diabetes Mellitus
’,
Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
,
2020
(
5953
), pp.
1
16
.
23.
Wang
,
X.
et al (
2013
) ‘
Statistical analysis of tongue images for feature extraction and diagnostics
’,
IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
,
22
(
12
), pp.
5336
5347
. doi: .
24.
Wang
,
X.
and
Zhang
,
D.
(
2010
) ‘
An Optimized Tongue Image Color Correction Scheme
’,
Ieee Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine
,
14
(
6
), pp.
1355
1364
.
25.
Xu
,
Q.
et al (
2020
) ‘
Multi-task Joint Learning Model for Segmenting and Classifying Tongue Images Using a Deep Neural Network
’,
IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics
,
14
(
8
), pp.
1
10
. doi: .
26.
Yamamoto
S
,
Ogawa-Ochiai
K
,
Nakaguchi
T
,
Tsumura
N
,
Namiki
T
, M. Y. (
2011
) ‘
Detecting hyper-/hypothyroidism from tongue color spectrum
’,
IEEE
, pp.
18
20
.
27.
Yamamoto
,
S.
et al (
2011
) ‘
Regional image analysis of the tongue color spectrum
’,
International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery
,
6
(
1
), pp.
143
152
. doi: .
28.
Zhang
,
B.
et al (
2013
) ‘
Tongue color analysis for medical application
’,
Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
, 2013, pp.
1
11
. doi: .
29.
Zhang
,
D.
and
Processing
,
S. I.
(
2021
)
‘What’s wrong with the tongue: color grading quantization based on hyperspectral images’
,
11848
(June), pp.
1
7
. doi: .
30.
Zhang
,
H. Z.
et al (
2005
) ‘
SVR based color calibration for tongue image
’,
2005 International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, ICMLC 2005
, (August), pp.
5065
5070
. doi: .
31.
Zhao
,
Q.
,
Zhang
,
D.
and
Zhang
,
B.
(
2017
) ‘
Digital tongue image analysis in medical applications using a new tongue ColorChecker
’,
2016 2nd IEEE International Conference on Computer and Communications, ICCC 2016 - Proceedings
, pp.
803
807
. doi: .
32.
Zhihao
,
J.
et al (
2008
) ‘
Analysis of Tongue Information in Coronary Artery Disease
’,
IEEE International Symposium on IT in Medicine and Education
, pp.
278
290
.
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