Development of optical sensor in measurement of apple quality

Abstract

A non-contact Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) techonology is used for measurement of apple quality by employing a diffuse reflection of fiber optic probe, whereby this technology has been widely used as an analysis method of agriculture, food etc due to low cost, minimal sample size and faster. The spectrum of NIR from apples samples will be scanned at hundred wavelengths in diffuse reflectance mode by a cooled InGaAs array spectrometer. In lieu of NIR’s reflection, the spectrum will be analyzed as of to determine soluble sugars of apple which will be reflected accordingly based on the composition of soluble sugar that available in apples. Those spectrums were sensitive to groups of O-H, C-H which located in Near-IR region (1100-2500nm). This non-invasive NIR spectroscopy with a fiber optic reflection probe has an advantage for non destructive fruits (apples) when determining their quality. The calibration of the devices is very important for each time setup as of to exclude background noise be it dark or bright light from surrounding. The low cost spectrometer had shows a serious simplification with a good approach of optical knowledge been leveraged throughout the entire projects.