Instrumental Techniques to Quantify Textural Change in Carpet Part I: Image Analysis

Work on carpet appearance change is reported, focusing on new textural measure ments of carpet pile. Three instrumental techniques to assess this texture change have been developed: image analysis, goniophotometry, and densitometry. A set of specially prepared saxony-type polyester carpet constructions were tested, both as unworn con trols and service worn to 60,000 steps of foot traffic. In Part I, actual carpet samples and their photographs were analyzed using computerized image analysis. This tech nique may prove valuable in assessing meaningful differences in carpet appearance, and particularly textural changes caused by pile/tuft definition or coherence. Gray level histograms were correlated with changes in appearance, differenoes in tuft spacing, and related carpet properties.