METHOD OF DETECTING COLOURS

A method of recognizing and detecting colors is disclosed, to allow recognition and sorting of objects. Pixels of a color image of an object to be recognized are received, the hue, intensity and/or saturation of each pixel is determined, the hue, intensity and/or saturation of each received pixel is allocated to a plurality of predetermined hue, intensity and/or saturation bands respectively to obtain hue, intensity and/or saturation distribution values respectively for the color image, and the distribution values for the color image are compared with the distribution values from one or more reference objects to determine if the object is recognized as a said reference object. This method of object recognition is independent of the image complexity and the number of colors on the object to be recognized. The method operates to compare a hue signature of the object to be recognized with a hue signature of a reference object.