Measuring Yarn Diameter Using Fast and Inexpensive Optical Sensors

In this paper, the inexpensive optical sensor of a common computer mouse is proposed as a tool to measure the yarn diameter. In the textile industry this measurement tool has many applications in quality control and assurance. This optical sensor operates in combination with a plastic lens and an external LED to complete an inexpensive and compact vision system. The optical sensor includes a fast optical monochrome imaging device of 30x30 pixels and an internal processing unit originally programmed to measure displacement in the images acquired. The imaging device can operate at very high frame rates and the image acquired can be accessed externally to develop new low-cost and real-time monitoring applications such as the measurement of yarn diameters.