Sand, gravel, coal, deicing salt or diamonds, grain, sugar, coffee or grapes and waste – a lot of everyday goods are more or less grainy. To classify this bulk material by quality and size, it must be sorted in a sophisticated process. Tens of thousands of belt-type sorting plants operate in Germany alone. Scientists of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, Systems Technology and Image Evaluation (IOSB) have developed a system that is able to sort much faster, more cheaply and more accurately than previous techniques.