Defect detection in the textile industry using image-based machine learning methods: A brief review

Traditionally, computer vision solutions for detecting elements of interest (e.g., defects) are based on strict context-sensitive implementations to address contained problems with a set of well-defined conditions. On the other hand, several machine learning approaches have proven their generalization capacity, not only to improve classification continuously, but also to learn from new examples, based on a fundamental aspect: the separation of data from the algorithmic setup. The findings regarding backward-propagation and the progresses built upon graphical cards technologies boost the advances in machine learning towards a subfield known as deep learning that is becoming very popular among many industrial areas, due to its even greater robustness and flexibility to map and deal knowledge that is typically handled by humans, with, also, incredible scalability proneness. Fabric defect detection is one of the manual processes that has been progressively automatized resorting to the aforementioned approaches, as it is an essential process for quality control. The goal is manifold: reduce human error, fatigue, ergonomic issues and associated costs, while simultaneously improving the expeditiousness and preciseness of the involved tasks, with a direct impact on profit. Following such research line with a specific focus in the textile industry, this work aims to constitute a brief review of both defect types and Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) mostly based on machine learning techniques, which have been proving their effectiveness in identifying anomalies within the context of textile material analysis. The inclusion of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based on known architectures such as AlexNet or Visual Geometry Group (VGG16) on computerized defect analysis allowed to reach accuracies over 98%. A short discussion is also provided along with an analysis of the current state characterizing this field of intervention, as well as some future challenges.ERDF - European Regional Development Fund(undefined

Using deep learning to detect the presence/absence of defects on leather: On the way to build an industry-driven approach

In textile/leather manufacturing environments, as in many other industrial contexts, quality inspection is an essential activity that is commonly performed by human operators. Error, fatigue, ergonomic issues, and related costs associated to this fashion of carrying out fabric validation are aspects concerning companies' strategists, whose mission includes to watch over the physical integrity of their employees, while aiming at enhanced quality control methods implementation towards profit maximization. Considering these challenges from a technical/scientific perspective, machine/deep learning approaches have been showing great skills in adapting a wide range of contexts and, in particular, industrial environments, complementing traditional computer vision methods with characteristics such as increased accuracy while dealing with image classification and segmentation problems, capacity for continuous learning from experts input and feedback, flexibility to easily scale training for new contextualization classes – unknown types of occurrences relevant to characterize a given problem –, among other advantages. The goal of crossing deep learning strategies with fabric inspection processes is pursued in this paper. After providing a brief but representative characterization of the targeted industrial context, in which, typically, fabric rolls of rawmaterial mats must be processed at a relatively low latency, an Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) system architecture designed for such environments is revisited [1], for contextualization purposes. Afterwards, a set of deep learning-oriented training methods/processes is proposed in combination with neural networks built based on Xception architecture, towards the implementation of one of the components that integrate the aforementioned system, from which is expected the identification of presence/absence of defective textile/leather raw material at a low-latency. Several models powered by Xception were trained with different tunning parameters, resorting to datasets variations that were set up from raw images of leather, following different annotation strategies (meticulous and rough). The model that performed better reached 96% of accuracy.ERDF - European Regional Development Fund(undefined

Polymerase chain reaction for soybean detection in heat processed meat products.

Since vegetable proteins are considerably cheaper than muscle proteins, they are frequently used as meat extenders in order to reduce the cost of the final product. Due to several interesting characteristics, soybean is reported to be the most widely used vegetable protein in the meat industry. Nevertheless, soybean is included in the group of 12 ingredients potentially allergenic, which should therefore be labelled according to the Codex Alimentarius FAO/WHO and the European Commission (Directive 2003/89/EC). In fact, it has been described that amounts of soy bellow 0.1% and 1% (w/w) can lead to allergic reactions in sensitive consumers (1)

Automatic Optimization of Deep Learning Training through Feature-Aware-Based Dataset Splitting

The proliferation of classification-capable artificial intelligence (AI) across a wide range of domains (e.g., agriculture, construction, etc.) has been allowed to optimize and complement several tasks, typically operationalized by humans. The computational training that allows providing such support is frequently hindered by various challenges related to datasets, including the scarcity of examples and imbalanced class distributions, which have detrimental effects on the production of accurate models. For a proper approach to these challenges, strategies smarter than the traditional brute force-based K-fold cross-validation or the naivety of hold-out are required, with the following main goals in mind: (1) carrying out one-shot, close-to-optimal data arrangements, accelerating conventional training optimization; and (2) aiming at maximizing the capacity of inference models to its fullest extent while relieving computational burden. To that end, in this paper, two image-based feature-aware dataset splitting approaches are proposed, hypothesizing a contribution towards attaining classification models that are closer to their full inference potential. Both rely on strategic image harvesting: while one of them hinges on weighted random selection out of a feature-based clusters set, the other involves a balanced picking process from a sorted list that stores data features’ distances to the centroid of a whole feature space. Comparative tests on datasets related to grapevine leaves phenotyping and bridge defects showcase promising results, highlighting a viable alternative to K-fold cross-validation and hold-out methods

Benchmarking deep learning models and hyperparameters for bridge defects classification

Deep learning (DL) is becoming increasingly popular in numerous application fields within the current Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era. This is mainly due to its capability for providing accurate predictions and reliable consistency in decision-making. Bridge engineering focused on structure monitoring and inspection is a crucial activity for disaster prevention. Therefore, it is an application field wherein synergies between professional knowledge and sophisticated machine-based analytics strategies can be established and even drive time-effective interventions. This paper presents a comparison of DL models used to detect defects in bridges, resorting to the following architectures: MobileNetV2, Xception, InceptionV3, NASNetMobile, Visual Geometry Group Network-16 (VGG16), and InceptionResNetV2. Different optimizers (e.g., Nadam, Adam, RMSprop, and SGD) crossed with distinct learning rates (e.g., 1, 10-1, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4, and 10-5) were employed. VGG16, Xception, and NASNetMobile showed the most stable learning curves. Moreover, Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) overlapping images clarifies that InceptionResNetV2 and InceptionV3 models seek features outside the areas of interest (defects). Comparing optimizers performance, the adaptive ones outperform SGD with decay schedulers for learning rates.- EDF Energy(undefined

ARPocketLab—A Mobile Augmented Reality System for Pedagogic Applications

The widespread adoption of digital technologies in educational systems has been globally reflecting a shift in pedagogic content delivery that seems to fit modern generations of students while tackling relevant challenges faced by the current scholar context, e.g., progress traceability, pedagogic content fair access and intuitive visual representativeness, mobility issue mitigation, and sustainability in crisis situations. Among these technologies, augmented reality (AR) emerges as a particularly promising approach, allowing the visualization of computer-generated interactive data on top of real-world elements, thus enhancing comprehension and intuition regarding educational content, often in mobile settings. While the application of AR to education has been widely addressed, issues related to performance interaction and cognitive performance are commonly addressed, with lesser attention paid to the limitations associated with setup complexity, mostly related to experiences configurating tools, or contextual range, i.e., technical/scientific domain targeting versatility. Therefore, this paper introduces ARPocketLab, a digital, mobile, flexible, and scalable solution designed for the dynamic needs of modern tutorship. With a dual-interface system, it allows both educators and students to interactively design and engage with AR content directly tied to educational outcomes. Moreover, ARPocketLab’s design, aimed at handheld operationalization using a minimal set of physical resources, is particularly relevant in environments where educational materials are scarce or in situations where remote learning becomes necessary. Its versatility stems from the fact that it only requires a marker or a surface (e.g., a table) to function at full capacity. To evaluate the solution, tests were conducted with 8th-grade Portuguese students within the context of Physics and Chemistry subject. Results demonstrate the application’s effectiveness in providing didactic assistance, with positive feedback not only in terms of usability but also regarding learning performance. The participants also reported openness for the adoption of AR in pedagogic contexts

Empowering Deaf-Hearing Communication: Exploring Synergies between Predictive and Generative AI-Based Strategies towards (<i>Portuguese</i>) Sign Language Interpretation

Communication between Deaf and hearing individuals remains a persistent challenge requiring attention to foster inclusivity. Despite notable efforts in the development of digital solutions for sign language recognition (SLR), several issues persist, such as cross-platform interoperability and strategies for tokenizing signs to enable continuous conversations and coherent sentence construction. To address such issues, this paper proposes a non-invasive Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa or LGP) interpretation system-as-a-service, leveraging skeletal posture sequence inference powered by long-short term memory (LSTM) architectures. To address the scarcity of examples during machine learning (ML) model training, dataset augmentation strategies are explored. Additionally, a buffer-based interaction technique is introduced to facilitate LGP terms tokenization. This technique provides real-time feedback to users, allowing them to gauge the time remaining to complete a sign, which aids in the construction of grammatically coherent sentences based on inferred terms/words. To support human-like conditioning rules for interpretation, a large language model (LLM) service is integrated. Experiments reveal that LSTM-based neural networks, trained with 50 LGP terms and subjected to data augmentation, achieved accuracy levels ranging from 80% to 95.6%. Users unanimously reported a high level of intuition when using the buffer-based interaction strategy for terms/words tokenization. Furthermore, tests with an LLM—specifically ChatGPT—demonstrated promising semantic correlation rates in generated sentences, comparable to expected sentences

A cloud-based 3D real-time inspection platform for industry: A casestudy focusing automotive cast iron parts

A 3D real-Time quality inspection platform that specifically focus on automotive cast iron parts was developed for the industry and is presented in this work. It is supported by a cloud-based platform, which combines recent software and hardware advances to deal with large amounts of information related to the acquisition process and the computational power needed to execute the computer vision platform algorithms (e.g., point cloud filtering, alignment, and comparison). This platform introduces changes in the current workflow through the inspection process digitalization. Indeed, it promotes the reduction of human-related inspection errors, as well as ergonomic issues, while simultaneously making available a solution for the automatic gathering and storing of data in a cloud-like environment, for further access and advanced data analytics.ERDF - European Regional Development Fund(undefined

Footwear segmentation and recommendation supported by deep learning: an exploratory proposal

The management of an online footwear retail store-Also known as marketplace-usually involves activities that directly or indirectly end up to interface with customers, wherein communication efficiency and effectiveness is crucially relevant. Critical factors concerning entities developing remote business in these areas or similar include: (i) production of appealing catalogues and (ii) digital tools to shorten the distance between customers and marketplaces. The former requires using specific third parties-often technically complex-To arrange and prepare photographic entries acquired in studio-like environments. This can delay the diffusion of products supply that may result in financial losses. The latter prevents the retailer of reaching critical mass at a higher potential. Considering such issues, this paper proposes a couple of modules for footwear marketplaces, powered by deep learning: one to segment shoes as a fully automatic background removal tool for easing and quickening catalogue creation activities in a back-office perspective; and another to provide visual search services that allow a customer to submit photographs of footwear of interest to obtain recommendations of similar products directly retrieved from online retail databases, establishing another digital bridge with potential buyers. Preliminary implementation and pilot tests point out Mask-RCNN as a promising approach for shoes segmentation. The same applies to ResNet101 and Xception, but for shoes recommendation, based on multi-label classification.This work was financed by the project “GreenShoes 4.0 - Footwear, Leather Goods and Advanced Material, Equipment and Software Technologies” (N° POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046082), supported by COMPETE 2020, under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)