Fiber property characterization by image processing

In this thesis, we intended to design and realize an imaging system for the accurate measurement of cotton fiber length. A secondary objective was to incorporate fiber maturity estimation into the system. Commercial systems measure fiber length in a reasonable time span, however, the accuracy is questionable. Image processing might be seen as an alternative method to the conventional systems, but the processing time is an issue. Our prototype system is composed of an off-the-shelf scanner that generates a grayscale image of multiple fibers, followed by customized image processing algorithms that compute the length of each fiber in the image. Although the system requires some degree of separation between the individual fibers, it is shown to produce highly accurate length measurements that are invariant to fiber orientation, shape, inter-fiber intersections, and intra-fiber crimps and crossovers. Hence, in its present state, the proposed system serves as an excellent reference method for assessing the efficacy of commercially available length measurement systems.