Digital system for objective evaluation of fabric appearance

Traditionally, human eyes and brain do all the work for the evaluation of fabric appearance. In fact, some quality standards such as AATCC, ASTM for pilling, wrinkling etc are based on such subjective evaluation practice. With the requirement of speedy, objective, digital information communication, manpower saving in quality control of textile, it is necessary to develop objective methods to evaluate fabric appearance in order to build a digital quality communication network and an instant quality bridge between manufactures, retailers and consumers.||We have developed a digital system with special lighting and new algorithms for the evaluation of fabric appearance attributes such as pilling, wrinkling, polar fleece fabrics etc. The system has the following features:||• Intelligent as an experienced judge.||• Instant image capturing and high-speed image processing, delivering quality parameters in less than 2 second and easy to be linked with network and using internet to evaluate the product quality remotely.||• Interactive means to define the suitable features of textile products according to operator's requirements freely, and simple operation for user.||• Impartial means getting the same objective results of textile products even for different operators, in different places and at different times.||The present system can be used for quality testing, measurement, evaluation and control. Since it can evaluate fabric appearance objectively. Objective standards rather than subjective standards can be established based on this system. It can eliminate the problems with the poor agreement between laboratories and/or among judges. It can also offer remote services of quality evaluation and may not be necessary to transport products from far away in order to evaluate appearance quality.