Cutting tool life monitoring is a critical element needed for designing unmanned machining systems. This paper describes a tool wear measurement system using computer vision which repeatedly measures flank and crater wear of a single point cutting tool. This direct tool wear measurement method is based on an interactive procedure utilizing a image processor and multi-vision sensors. A measurement software calcultes 7 parameters to characterize flank and crater wear. Performance test revealed that the computer vision technique provides precise, absolute tool-wear quantification and reduces human maesurement errors.