One problem in the quality control of textiles is the measure of the pilling degree in worn fabrics. Wear and tear make some fibers separate from the woven yarns and get entangled in pills distributed on the web. Pilling degree is often evaluated by experts from a visual comparison with standard images. In this work, we use some techniques of digital image processing to evaluate the pilling degree. From the analysis of a set of standard images we establish and develop a sequential method for an objective measurement. The method involves operations in the frequency domain as well as in the spatial domain. In the final processed images we segment pills from the background fabric and we measure the total area of pilling for each image. We have verified that there is a logarithmic relationship between the total pilling area and the degree of pilling.

Date Published: 21 August 1996
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 2786, Vision Systems: Applications, (21 August 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.248577

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2786:
Vision Systems: Applications
Panayotis A. Kammenos; Bertram Nickolay, Editor(s)