Development and Application of Image Analysis Program for Investigation of Pore Characteristics in Transverse Surface of Hardwoods

An image analysis program with the function of measuring various quantitative characteristics in the transverse surface of wood was developed using Delphi 2.0. Data on pore characteristics (conditions for image processing, proportion of pores in relationship to other elements, tangential diameter, area, tangential and radial diameter, x and y coordinates of pore center, and geometric coefficients) were saved in text file format. In addition, the pore area histogram in the tangential and radial directions was saved as a BMP (bitmap) type file. Analyses indicated that quantitative characteristics such as the relative radial distribution of pores in a growth ring, pore tangential area histogram, and proportion of pore in lumen area appear to be useful in separating four diffuse-porous woods and four ring-porous woods on the species level.