An automatic system for dirt in pulp inspection using hierarchical image segmentation

An automatic visual inspection system designed for dirt inspection in the p ulp and paper industry is presented. A new hierarchical region oriented seg mentation algorithm is introduced. The algorithm is tuned according to the singular characteristics of the pulp samples. A criterion based on the maxi misation of the local contrast is defined in order to perform a defect regi on segmentation of the pulp and paper images. Some optimisations are introd uced to avoid an excessive computational load. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.