Researchers at Texas Tech University are working on a machine that objectively determines the wrinkle factor in cotton.

According to Eric Hequet, associate director of the university''s International Textile Centre, the expanding use of man-made,
wrinkle-resistant fibres has made it imperative for cotton to become similarly competitive.

However, he argued that the use of human graders was too subjective for accurate research and development of such a machine. "There is a big need in the industry to have a humanless system," he said.

Associate Director of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech, Hamed Sari-Sarraf, said the research involved an acquisition stage and a processing stage.

The acquisition stage, he said, entailed generating a representation of the fabric and storing it in a computer, while the processing stage studied how the computer managed the information to describe the wrinkling of fabric. The research is being sponsored by Cotton Inc and the Texas Food and Fibre Commission.