A new method for estimating surface area of cylindrical fruits (zucchini) using digital image processing (original) (raw)

Estimation of surface area and volume of agricultural products are considered as important factors in optimization of storage conditions, packaging, transportation, water adsorption/desorption, heat, pesticides and also their breathing. The objective of this study was to establish a method to obtain non-destructive measurement of surface area of cylindrical fruit like zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) using image processing technique. In this approach, measuring surface area was performed by a scanner set. Before peeling the fruit off, the external surface area of zucchini was imaged by rolling it on the scanner’s screen. Then, the external surface area was calculated using image processing technique. In order to evaluate the accuracy of method, the results were compared with the usual measured skin surface area after peeling (actual value) in the same condition. The results showed that the precision of this new method is significantly high (R2= 94.43). The mean and standard deviation of the surface area differences between the two methods were 5.81 cm2 and 0.13 cm2, respectively. The Bland-Altman approach was also considered to be satisfactory. The results showed that image processing method was suitable for surface area estimation of almost all zucchini sizes. Furthermore, all the process (photography and image processing) was performed in less than 6 seconds. The area of cylindrical fruits can be measured nondestructively, quickly, and precisely using the applied image processing technique, providing a hardware to scan external surface area of crop.