System for color and shade monitoring of fabrics or garments during processing

A shade and color analysis system for monitoring color and controlling the introduction of chemical decolorizing agents within a process vessel containing a liquid and an oxidizing or reducing process for decolorizing garments or fabrics in a closed chamber comprising:

• means mounted outside said chamber for illuminating swatches or samples within said chamber;
• means mounted outside of said chamber for scanning said illuminated swatches or samples including means for providing a composite electronic output signal comprising a luminance signal component, a chroma signal component and a carrier signal component;
• means for separating said composite electronic output signal into said luminance signal component and chroma signal component;
• means for analyzing said luminance signal component and said chroma signal component;
• means for computing color data by comparing said chroma signal component and said luminance signal component with the color data having a tolerance limit stored in a memory means to detect changes in color and shade means for displaying a digitized image representative of the components of color values;
• and
• means responsive to said color data for introducing said liquid and said oxidizing or reducing agents into said chamber.