1. A method for measuring crimp characteristics of fibers in a moving crimped tow, said method comprising the steps of: a) illuminating said crimped tow with a continuous wave light source; b) acquiring an interlaced video image of the crimped tow; c) digitizing the video image; d) decomposing the digitized image into two non-interlaced field images; e) processing said two field images; and f) displaying crimp characteristics based on said processed images.