Novel Framework for Optical Film Defect Detection and Classification

Currently, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are the most popular type of flat panel display and are used in most applications. An LCD contains many critical optical film components that are produced in highly automated and precisely monitored facilities throughout the complex manufacturing process. However, defect detection and classification through visual inspection is very difficult during the manufacturing process. To overcome this problem, a novel framework based on machine vision known as the optical film defect detection and classification system is presented for use in the real-time inspection. First, an image acquisition system equipped with a high-resolution camera and custom-made lighting field was designed to obtain a high-quality optical film image. Second, the defects on an optical film were detected using localized cross-projection based on proposed adaptive energy analysis. Finally, the defect images were classified into four types by using the developed classification algorith—point, scratch, foreign material, and stain. The quality of the products yielded after defect detection and classification of the optical film was compared with the standard product quality of the manufacturer. Experiments were conducted using samples collected from the largest manufacturer in Taiwan to validate the performance of the proposed framework. The accurate defect detection rate is 99.6%, the classification accuracy rate is 100%, and the total operation time is short whichonly 6.129s are required on average to perform the inspection for an optical film sample. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is sound and useful for optical film inspection in industries.