Internal crack detection in kidney bean seeds using X-ray imaging technique

Abstract

Seed quality testing is a contemporary research area that is motivated towards increasing agricultural productivity. For accurate quality assessment of seeds, internal morphological characteristics should be thoroughly examined in addition to the external examination. The soft X-ray imaging technique enables the visualization of the internal morphological attributes of agricultural seeds and grains in a non-destructive manner. The objective of this paper was to study the efficacy of using the X-ray imaging technique to detect the internal cracks in kidney bean seeds. The X-ray images of the sample seeds were acquired and image processing techniques such as histogram thresholding and morphological operations were applied on them. The segmented seed images were further processed and features were extracted. The extracted features were utilized for automatic detection of internal cracks, if present. The obtained results clearly indicated the usability of X-ray imaging techniques for automatic non-destructive detection of internal cracks in kidney bean seeds, as an essential component of their quality assessment.