I developed a basic Particle Analysis application using Vision Acquisition Express VI and Vision Assistant in LabVIEW for detecting circular objects from an acquired image.
In this project, filled and non-filled circles are identified as particles, while small unwanted circles/noise are neglected using morphology operations and particle filtering techniques. An overlay rectangle was also added to highlight and mark the detected particles for better visualization and inspection.
Project Workflow:
1️⃣ Image Acquisition
Images were acquired using Vision Acquisition Express VI with a USB camera for real-time image processing.
2️⃣ ROI Selection using Image Mask
Image Mask (ROI) was used to focus only on the required inspection area and remove unwanted background regions. This reduces unnecessary processing and improves analysis accuracy.
3️⃣ Color to Grayscale Conversion
The acquired color image was converted into a grayscale image to simplify image processing. Grayscale processing reduces RGB information into intensity values, making further analysis easier and faster.
4️⃣ Grayscale to Binary Conversion
Thresholding was used to convert the grayscale image into a binary image. In the binary image, objects are represented using white pixels and the background using black pixels, allowing easy object separation.
5️⃣ Morphology Operations
Morphology functions were used to remove small unwanted particles/noise and improve the shape of the detected objects for more accurate particle analysis.
6️⃣ Particle Analysis
Particle Analysis detects connected pixel regions from the binary image and measures properties such as particle size, area, and position. In binary image processing, objects are represented as connected pixels, which is why particles are analyzed based on pixel regions.
7️⃣ Overlay Rectangle
Overlay Rectangle was added to visually mark the detected particles in the processed image, making object identification and inspection clearer.
Key Learning Outcomes:
• Basics of machine vision using LabVIEW
• ROI handling and image masking
• Binary image processing
• Thresholding techniques
• Morphology operations
• Particle filtering and analysis
• Overlay-based object marking using NI Vision tools
