1. A free-lying cell segmenter comprising: (a) a means for acquiring at least one image of a biological specimen having an image output; (b) a means for creating a contrast enhanced image having an enhanced image output wherein the means for creating a contrast enhanced image is connected to receive the at least one image; (c) a means for image thresholding having a thresholded image output wherein the means for image thresholding is connected to receive the contrast enhanced image; and (d) a means for object refinement having a refined object output wherein the means for object refinement is connected to receive the thresholded image output; and wherein the means for object refinement performs a morphological operation on the thresholded image output.