Virtual subjective pilling evaluation: an alternative

Abstract

This paper reports an alternative approach for the evaluation of fabric pilling. On this approach, orthogonal projections of the three-dimensional (3D) fabric images are used directly to virtually evaluate the pilling formation of the fabrics. The 3D images of the fabrics are obtained through the reconstruction of the topography of the real textile fabrics. For that, a dual-scanning optical system (triangulation system) was used, which was developed and implemented by our research team. This evaluation approach is performed by comparing the appearance of the orthogonal projections of the 3D fabric images with the same photographic standard sets used in the conventional subjective method. For the validation of the obtained results with this methodology, a comparison was carried out relative to a reference subjective evaluation. This reference evaluation corresponds to a subjective evaluation of the fabrics originally performed by a panel of experts. A comparison was also performed between the results obtained with this methodology and those obtained by an objective evaluation. This objective evaluation corresponds to the automatic attribution of the equivalent pilling grade to the fabrics, based on the calculation of the total volume of pilling formed in their surfaces. The final results obtained with the described methodology were showed to be globally in agreement with both the reference subjective and the objective evaluations. Subsequently, this method shows potential as an alternative approach for the virtual subjective evaluation of fabric pilling.