# US 10,311,575 B2 · Imaging method for determining stray fibers

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- Number: US 10,311,575 B2
- Document ID: US10311575B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/467,317
- Filed: 2017-03-23
- Published: 2017-09-28
- Granted: 2019-06-04
- Earliest claimed: 2016-03-23
- Assignees: The Procter & Gamble Company
- Applicants: The Procter & Gamble Company
- Inventors: Samuel Wolfe Stofel; Lisa Jo Bartz; Erica Vencil Buckner; Tian Chen; Jennifer Mary Marsh; Supriya Punyani; Dana Hance Wolsing; Brian Xiaoqing Song; Tiffany Tien-Yun Yang
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10311575B2

## CPC

- G06T 7/13: Edge detection
- A61B 5/448: {Hair evaluation, e.g. for hair disorder diagnosis}
- G06T 7/12: Edge-based segmentation
- G06T 7/90: Determination of colour characteristics
- G06V 40/16: Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
- G06T 2207/10024: Color image
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
- A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D)
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING

## Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method of detecting stray fibers emanating from a substrate comprising: a) Taking an image or a series of consecutive images of stray fibers in front of a contrasted background, that is created using one or more light sources, using a digital device; b) Segmenting of stray fibers and background from objects not directly contrasted against the background resulting in a binary image mask; c) Applying an edge detection technique to the image or modification of original image to enhance contrast of stray fibers against the background; and Applying the binary image mask from step b) to an image created in step c) to create an image in which only the stray fibers and/or outline of any other object contrasted against the background are present.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of detecting stray fibers emanating from a substrate comprising:
a) Taking an image or a series of consecutive images of stray fibers in front of a contrasted background, that is created using one or more light sources, using a digital device;
b) Segmenting of stray fibers and background from objects not directly contrasted against the background resulting in a binary image mask;
c) Applying an edge detection technique to the image from 1a) or modification of the image of 1a) to enhance contrast of stray fibers against the background;
d) Applying the binary image mask from step b) to an image created in step c) to create an image in which the stray fibers and/or outline of any other object contrasted against the background are present.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein step b) the segmentation technique is a single threshold constant or combination of threshold constants that define intensity ranges.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein step c) the edge detection technique is a Laplacian, Canny, Sobel, Robertson, Prewitt, high pass filtering or any other type of edge detection filter.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein step d) is followed by manipulating the stray fiber image by adjusting one or more of the following parameters; gamma, contrast, brightness to enhance the appearance the stray fibers against the background pixels.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein step d) is followed by segmenting of the image to enhance the appearance the stray fibers against the background pixels.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein the stray fiber image or a further manipulated version of the stray fiber image is used as a basis for quantifying the amount of stray fibers in the image.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein the stray fiber image or a further manipulated version of the stray fiber image is used as a basis for performing additional visualizations of the original image.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein the stray fibers are from the group consisting of hair, fabrics, cellulosic substrate, non-cellulosic and mixtures thereof.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

Method of claim 8 wherein the hair is attached to a person.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

Method of claim 8 wherein the hair is a hair tress.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

Method of claim 10 wherein the hair tress is a braided tress.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 step a) wherein the device is a color or monochrome digital camera that can be used to capture video or still images.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 step a) wherein a color of the background is chosen to be different than the color of any other objects not directly contrasted against the background.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein the stray fiber has a diameter of 0.25 inches or less.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1 wherein the one or more light sources can be in a position selected from the group consisting of front, side, top, bottom, back or mixtures thereof.

### Claim 16 (depends on 8)

Method of claim 8 wherein the hair or hair tress is twisted/rotated.

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

Method of claim 1, wherein object not directly contrasted against the background is masked out by a mask that is drawn manually or automatically added should the position and approximate size of the object be known.