Corn seed variety classification based on hyperspectral reflectance imaging and deep convolutional neural network

Abstract

Variety purity is an important indicator in seed quality detection. Different varieties of corn seeds may be mixed in the growth and development process, which affects the growth and yield of the seeds. Thus, it is necessary to find a fast and non-destructively method to detect the purity. In this paper, the feasibility of combining hyperspectral imaging with deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) was studied to classify four corn seed varieties. Firstly, the average spectra from the region of seed in endosperm side hyperspectral images over the wavelength range of 450–979 nm were extracted. Secondly, the performances of three models were compared, including DCNN, K nearest neighbors (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM). DCNN model has the 100% training accuracy rate, 94.4% testing accuracy rate and 93.3% validation accuracy rate, and outperforms KNN and SVM models in most cases. DCNN model also had the best performance in evaluation indexes (sensitivity, specificity and precision). Finally, the visual classification map was generated according to the results of DCNN. Results show that DCNN can be adopted in spectral data analysis for the variety classification of corn seed; and the classification performance can be improved effectively.