Yarn Color Measurement Method Based on Digital Photography

To overcome the complexity of yarn color measurement using spectrophotometry with yarn winding techniques and to enhance consistency with human visual perception, a yarn color measurement method based on digital photography is proposed. This study employs a photographic colorimetry system to capture digital images of single yarns. The yarn and background are segmented using the K-means clustering algorithm, and the centerline of the yarn is extracted using a skeletonization algorithm. Spectral reconstruction and colorimetric principles are then applied to calculate the color values of pixels along the centerline. Considering the nonlinear characteristics of human brightness perception, the final yarn color is obtained through a nonlinear texture-adaptive weighted computation. The method is validated through psychophysical experiments using six yarns of different colors and compared with spectrophotometry and five other photographic measurement methods. Results indicate that among the seven yarn color measurement methods, including spectrophotometry, the proposed method-based on centerline extraction and nonlinear texture-adaptive weighting-yields results that more closely align with actual visual perception. Furthermore, among the six photographic measurement methods, the proposed method produces most similar to those obtained using spectrophotometry. This study demonstrates the inconsistency between spectrophotometric measurements and human visual perception of yarn color and provides methodological support for developing visually consistent color measurement methods for textured textiles.