Patent attributes
Method of grading a sample. An input color image of the sample, such as a sample of raw cotton, is obtained by a scanning technique. This image is first analyzed by an image segmentation module and a binary image where pixels of a first characteristic are marked as 0 (e.g. cotton lint) and non-lint pixels are marked as 1. In a following particle recognition module, the adjacent non-lint pixels are grouped together as particles, and the color, size, shape and edge strength for each particle are computed. The particle descriptions are analyzed and each particle is assigned a trash type, i.e. leaf, bark, grass, pepper trash or shadow. The data of leaf and pepper trash are analyzed by a leaf grading module and leaf grade is reported. The data of bark/grass are analyzed by a bark/grass grading module and the bark/grass grade is reported.
