Many industrial processes require on-line measurement of particle size and particle size distribution for process monitoring and control. The available techniques for reliable on-line measurement are, however, limited. In this paper, based on the captured surface images of randomly disarranged ore particles, the image uniformity was characterized. Particle size distribution was then investigated by applying a neural network-based modeling with the obtained image uniformity. The proposed soft sensor provides an improved prediction model and can be used for real time measurement of particle size distribution in the industrial operations. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.