Fabric pilling measurement using three-dimensional image

Abstract

We introduce a stereovision system and the three-dimensional (3-D) image analysis algorithms for fabric pilling measurement. Based on the depth information available in the 3-D image, the pilling detection process starts from the seed searching at local depth maxima to the region growing around the selected seeds using both depth and distance criteria. After the pilling detection, the density, height, and area of individual pills in the image can be extracted to describe the pilling appearance. According to the multivariate regression analysis on the 3-D images of 30 cotton fabrics treated by the random-tumble and home-laundering machines, the pilling grade is highly correlated with the pilling density (R 2 =0.923 ) but does not consistently change with the pilling height and area. The pilling densities measured from the 3-D images also correlate well with those counted manually from the samples (R 2 =0.985 ).