An Electronic Eye to Improve Efficiency of Cut Tile Measuring Function

Abstract

attached

This paper presents an attempt to improve efficiency of cut tile measurement function by developing an ‘electronic eye’ device using image processing techniques. The automated system consists of a mechanical unit and an image processing unit. A conveyer belt used to move cut tiles one after the other. The camera unit situated above the conveyer belt is directly connected to a computer for image acquisition. Constant light condition was maintained by use of an external light system. The developed algorithm was capable of capturing images of the tiles moving on the conveyer belt automatically. Then image processing techniques were applied to calculate pixel length and pixel width of a cut tile. These pixel values were converted to length and width in mm scale and data saved in a text file. If the cut tile dimensions were not in the given range, the system sounds an alarm. The system presented in this paper is capable of measurement of tile dimension 0.4 mm of least measurement and measurement time is reduced from 20 s to 2.5 s compared to manual method. Furthermore, the number of employers can be reduced to one compared to work of three people involved in manual method.