Automatic classification of granite tiles through colour and texture features
This paper is about the development of an expert system for automatic classification of granite tiles through computer vision. We discuss issues and possible solutions related to image acquisition, robustness against noise factors, extraction of visual features and classification, with particular focus on the last two. In the experiments we compare the performance of different visual features and classifiers over a set of 12 granite classes. The results show that classification based on colour and texture is highly effective and outperforms previous methods based on textural features alone. As for the classifiers, Support Vector Machines show to be superior to the others, provided that the governing parameters are tuned properly.
Highlights
We discuss the development of an expert system for automatic classification of granite tiles. We propose new approaches to granite classification based on combined colour and texture analysis. We evaluate the performance of different visual descriptors and classifiers. Combination of colour and texture features proves highly effective in discriminating granite appearance. Classification based on SVM support vector classification outperforms the other methods.
People have used granite for thousands of years. It is used as a construction material, a dimension stone, an architectural stone, a decorative stone, and it has also been used to manufacture a wide variety of products.
Granite is used in buildings, bridges, paving, monuments, and many other exterior projects. Indoors, polished granite slabs and tiles are used in countertops, tile floors, stair treads and many other design elements. Granite is a prestige material, used in projects to produce impressions of elegance and quality. Some interesting and common uses of granite are shown in the photo collection below.
The definition of "granite" varies. A geologist might define granite as a coarse-grained, quartz- and feldspar-bearing igneous rock that is made up entirely of crystals. However, in the dimension stone trade, the word "granite" is used for any feldspar-bearing rock with interlocking crystals that are large enough to be seen with the unaided eye. By this classification, rocks such as anorthosite, gneiss, granite, granodiorite, diabase, monzonite, syenite, gabbro and others are all sold under the trade name of "granite."
The quality control process in stone industry is a challenging problem to deal with nowadays. Due to the similar visual appearance of different rocks with the same mineralogical content, economical losses can happen in industry if clients cannot recognize properly the rocks delivered as the ones initially purchased. In this paper, we go toward the automation of rock-quality assessment in different image resolutions by proposing the first data-driven technique applied to granite tiles classification. Our approach understands intrinsic patterns in small image patches through the use of Convolutional Neural Networks tailored for this problem. Experiments comparing the proposed approach to texture descriptors in a well-known dataset show the effectiveness of the proposed method and its suitability for applications in some uncontrolled conditions, such as classifying granite slab under different image resolutions.
These ceramic and granite tiles from Italian company Cerdomus are unusual, modern and effortlessly beautiful. The ceramic-granite made tiles mimic gorgeous wood flooring. Their unique appearance brings dynamic contrasts into a modern interior design, offering practical, convenient flooring. Wood-like floor tiles are a timeless choice that turns living spaces into luxurious and unique rooms, filled with comfort, warmth and timeless elegance.
