A microprocessor-based video-scanning trash-meter

This thesis report describes the hardware, software design and testing of a complete microprocessor-based image analysis system called a "trash-meter." The trash-meter is a single STD-card Z-80A based system which performs a two-dimensional cotton surface scanning using a high-resolution charge-coupled-device camera. The trash-meter measures the amount of the foreign content of cotton referred to as "trash" in terms of trash area and number of distinct trash spots present on the cotton surface. Once a picture frame is digitized and stored (in real time) and a complete analysis is done by the system software, the results (trash area and trash count) are sent to a host computer serially.