Method and apparatus for classifying geological materials using image processing techniques

An apparatus for classifying geological materials using image processing techniques, the apparatus comprising:

• a color correction unit receiving an input image photographed together with a predetermined standard color chart, correcting the color of the input image, and outputting the color-corrected image;
• a color space analysis unit receiving the color-corrected image, analyzing at least one type of color space of the color-corrected image, and outputting a color component value and an amount of change of the color component value;
• a granulometry unit extracting a brightness image from the color-corrected image, performing an operation used in mathematical morphology on the brightness image, and outputting the granularity of the color-corrected image;
• a texture analysis unit receiving the color-corrected image and extracting predetermined texture parameters and texture statistics;
• and
• a classification unit determining a geological material of the input image based on the color component value, the amount of change of the color component value, the texture parameters, and the texture statistics, wherein the texture analysis unit comprises:
• a first extractor generating a gray scale co-occurrence matrix, applying the gray scale co-occurrence matrix to the color-corrected image, calculating texture parameters comprising energy, entropy, contrast and homogeneity, and
• outputting the texture parameters;
• and a second extractor applying an autocorrelation function to the color-corrected image, calculating texture statistics comprising the sizes of texture elements, and outputting the texture statistics.