Patent ID: 7382453

Claim:
A method for characterizing an interfacial property of a dispersion comprising a first fluid and a second fluid, the method comprising: (a) directing an electromagnetic radiation at the dispersion; (b) collecting over a sampling time period a set of transmittance images representing a spatial distribution of transmittance intensity of the electromagnetic radiation through the dispersion at a plurality of sampling times within the sampling time period, while maintaining a substantially constant value of a characterization variable relating to the dispersion; (c) repeating (a) and (b) one or more times at different values of the characterization variable in order to collect a plurality of sets of transmittance images, wherein each set of transmittance images is collected at a different value of the characterization variable; (d) generating from each of the sets of transmittance images a value of a general interfacial property factor for the dispersion, wherein each of the values of the general interfacial property factor is associated with different values of the characterization variable; and (e) characterizing the interfacial property of the dispersion using the values of the general interfacial property factor.