The paper proposes the parameter optimization of image processing for contamination inspection of nonwoven fabrics. Currently, the automation of contamination inspection using image processing systems is being considered. In image processing, it is important to set the optimal parameters for the processing. However, it is necessary to search it from many combinations because there are some parameters. The proposed method searches for the optimal parameters based on a genetic algorithm. It reduces the search time in comparison with the conventional method. The paper indicates the effectiveness of the proposed method with the experimental results.

In this paper, we propose a novel method to estimate the slant of omnidirectional image sensors which can acquire images of an environment with a FOV close to 360/spl deg/ /spl times/ 180/spl deg/. The proposed method consists of two steps: a low resolution voting followed by a least squares method (LSM). First, the direction of each edge pixel in the omnidirectional image is computed and projected to the plane of Z = 1. The biggest peak formed by the vertical edges, which are prevalent in indoor and urban scenes, is detected. Then, edge directions whose projections to the voting plane pass near the peak are used to estimate the slant of the sensor by LSM. Experimental results in a real environment show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In this research, we introduce a reasonable noise model for range data which is obtained by a laser radar range finder, and derive two simple approximate solutions of optimal local plane fitting the range data under the noise model. We compare our methods with general least-squares based methods, such as Z-function fitting, the eigenvalue method, the maximum likelihood estimation method, and the renormalization method, an iterative method to obtain the optimal fitting of planes of range data under the noise model. All the methods are compared and evaluated using both synthetic range data and real range data with ground truth. From the experimental evaluation results, the proposed methods are shown to be effective, and the general least-squares-based methods are shown to be unsuitable for the assumed noise model.