Abstract: Cotton fiber maturity is very important for cotton-textile, such as raising efficiency of technique,assuring the quality of fiber and product. It is the main indicator of cotton grades assessment. The principle and research status of cotton fiber maturity measurements is introduced, and the virtue and drawback of those methods is analyzed in this paper. Through comparative analysis of those methods at accuracy and speed, this paper indicates that longitudinal measurement is effective way to measure maturity quickly, objectively and accurately. The important problems would be faced in the longitudinal measurement are also developed in this paper.

Key words: cotton fiber, maturity, measurement, image processing