Supervised and Unsupervised Textile Classification via Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging and Deep Learning

Abstract

Recycling textile fibers is critical to reducing the environmental impact of the textile industry. Hyperspectral near-infrared (NIR) imaging combined with advanced deep learning algorithms offers a promising solution for efficient fiber classification and sorting. In this study, we investigate supervised and unsupervised deep learning models and test their generalization capabilities on different textile structures. We show that optimized convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and autoencoder networks achieve robust generalization under varying conditions. These results highlight the potential of hyperspectral imaging and deep learning to advance sustainable textile recycling through accurate and robust classification.

Accepted at: Proceedings of OCM 2025 - 7th International Conference on Optical Characterization of Materials, March 26-27, 2025, Karlsruhe, Germany, pp. 319-328