An Investigation of Colour Properties of Orosei Limestones (Italy) by Using Computer Program

In this study, a new computer program developed to determine the colour properties of natural stone products is introduced. The program can scan any digitalised picture of natural stone products and produce several statistical results such as mean, variance, minimum and maximum colour values, skewness and kurtosis values of the colour histogram, energy, contrast, entropy and homogeneity values of the data which may be used to classify the typology and/or quality of natural stone products. As a case study, Orosei limestones (Sardegna, Italy) were used. There are several typologies of Orosei limestones such as Nuvolato (Cloudy), Venato chiaro (Light Veined), Venato medio (Medium Veined), Venato scuro (Dark Veined), Perlato chiaro (Light Pearled), Perlato medio (Medium Pearled) and Perlato scuro (Dark Pearled). The remarkable results produced by the program are presented.