Hi-tech camera to 'taste' apples
quality of a food product is of uppermost importance. Scientists in
the US claim to have come up with a novel alternative to the human
taster for apples - a robot.
In the competitive world of food retail and food production the quality of a food product is of uppermost importance. Scientists in the US claim to have come up with a novel alternative to the human taster for apples - a robot.
Robotic inspection cameras created by Agricultural Research Service scientist Renfu Lu would "taste" every single apple by bouncing light off it to sense sugar content and firmness.
Lu, an agricultural engineer at the ARS Sugarbeet and Bean Research Unit, has developed mathematical equations that relate sugar content to the amount of light absorbed by an apple, and firmness to the amount of light bounced off the apple.
Apple packing houses currently rely on digital camera imagery to sort apples by surface appearance only, flagging those that are visibly defective or the wrong size or colour. According to an ARS statement, the current system can detect neitherbruises beneath the skin nor flavour and other internal qualities.
Lu claims to look deeper by adding lights and spectroscopy to analyse various wavelengths of reflected light. Lu maintains that when the system is fully developed, specially designed software would allow a computer to sort apples by the internal quality attributes - firmness, ripeness and taste - required for various grades.
ARS adds that Lu's digital imagery system could easily be merged with those in packing houses and adapted to other fruits such as peaches and pears.
More information on the new technology can be found in the August 2002 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
