Method and system of determining the fiber diameter distribution of a fibrous media

A method of determining fiber diameter distribution of a fibrous media, comprising:

• providing at least one digital image representative of said fibrous media;
• pre-processing said image to enhance image quality;
• binarizing said image to produce a binarized image representative of structure of said fibrous media;
• generating virtual lines on said binarized image;
• solving for fiber fringe points on each of said generated lines;
• solving for fiber center points as a mean of said fringe points on each fiber;
• calculating fiber spacing from said fiber center points;
• generating and growing measurement circles about said fiber center points until circles intersect at least one fiber fringe;
• relocating said center points and resizing measurement circles so circles intersect but do not extend beyond opposing fringes of said fibers;
• repositioning said measurement circles and center points as needed to avoid fiber intersections, then resizing said repositioned measurement circles to intersect said opposing fringes;
• calculating fiber diameters from said circles;
• saving at least one image including said circles and said center points;
• and
• storing calculated fiber diameters and fiber spacing.

A method of determining fiber diameter distribution of a fibrous media, comprising:

• providing at least one digital image representative of said fibrous media;
• pre-processing said image to enhance image quality;
• binarizing said image to produce a binarized image representative of structure of said fibrous media;
• displaying said image representative of said fibrous media on a display terminal;
• interacting with an operator to enable said operator to select at least one fiber to be measured using an interactive location picking input means;
• for each selected fiber:
• generating a virtual line through said fiber at said location picked by said operator;
• solving for fiber fringe points on each of said generated lines;
• solving for fiber center points as a mean of said fringe points on each fiber;
• generating and growing measurement circles about said fiber center points until circles intersect at least one fiber fringe;
• relocating said center points and resizing measurement circles so circles intersect but do not extend beyond opposing fringes of said fibers;
• repositioning said measurement circles and center points as needed to avoid fiber intersections, then resizing said repositioned measurement circles to intersect said opposing fringes;
• calculating fiber diameters from said circles;
• and
• reporting said fiber diameters to said operator.