A characterization method for characterizing an article made of composite material having woven, braided, or sewn fiber reinforcement, the method including a determination step of using X-ray tomography to determine gray levels of at least a portion of the article, followed by an exploitation step of exploiting the gray levels to obtain information concerning the weaving by distinguishing between at least the free matrix and the threads of fibers mixed with the matrix, the threads being considered as being a material that is homogeneous.

A seam inspection apparatus can automatically determine the quality of an image of a seam of a sewn product. The seam inspection apparatus includes an image data acquisition unit that acquires image data of a seam of a sewn product, a feature extraction unit that extracts a feature quantity of the seam from the image data of the seam of the sewn product acquired by the image data acquisition unit, and a quality determination unit that performs quality determination of the seam based on the feature quantity of the seam.

Described is a system for managing and controlling fabrics comprising: a first station for moving a fabric, a second station for moving said fabric operatively connected to said first station, a light source positioned in an intermediate position between said first station and said second station configured for illuminating from the bottom upwards a predetermined portion of said fabric, an optical device for acquiring an image or a video of said predetermined portion of said fabric, a data processing and storage unit connected to said optical device and configured to associate with said image or video of said predetermined portion of said fabric identification information of said fabric.

A seam inspection apparatus can automatically determine the quality of an image of a seam of a sewn product. The seam inspection apparatus includes an image data acquisition unit that acquires image data of a seam of a sewn product, a feature extraction unit that extracts a feature quantity of the seam from the image data of the seam of the sewn product acquired by the image data acquisition unit, and a quality determination unit that performs quality determination of the seam based on the feature quantity of the seam.