Segmentation and object tracking for the microstructure analysis of soil

Civil engineering researchers are interested in the microstructural behavior of soils subjected to a crushing strain. The authors describe a machine vision system developed to help experimenters study this behavior. In laboratory experiments, a video camera views soil particles through a sapphire window in a containment vessel as they are subjected to compressive strain, or uniaxial loading, over a period of 5 to 20 min. The vision system segments the particles from the background, estimates the centroid and orientation of each, and tracks the particles throughout the experiment