Fabric defect detection based on deep-feature and low-rank decomposition

Fabric defect detection plays an important role in controlling the quality of textile production. In this article, a novel fabric defect detection algorithm is proposed based on a multi-scale convolutional neural network and low-rank decomposition model. First, multi-scale convolutional neural network, which can extract the multi-scale deep feature of the image using multiple nonlinear transformations, is adopted to improve the characterization ability of fabric images with complex textures. The effective feature extraction makes the background lie in a low-rank subspace, and a sparse defect deviates from the low-rank subspace. Then, the low-rank decomposition model is constructed to decompose the feature matrix into the low-rank part (background) and the sparse part (salient defect). Finally, the saliency maps generated by the sparse matrix are segmented based on an improved optimal threshold to locate the fabric defect regions. Experimental results indicate that the feature extracted by the multi-scale convolutional neural network is more suitable for characterizing the fabric texture than the traditional hand-crafted feature extraction methods, such as histogram of oriented gradient, local binary pattern, and Gabor. The adopted low-rank decomposition model can effectively separate the defects from the background. Moreover, the proposed method is superior to state-of-the-art methods in terms of its adaptability and detection efficiency.