<title>Citrus fruit recognition using color image analysis</title>

Abstract

An algorithm for the automatic recognition of citrus fruit on the tree was developed. Citrus fruits have different color with leaves and branches portions. Fifty-three color images with natural citrus-grove scenes were digitized and analyzed for red, green, and blue (RGB ) color content. The color characteristics of target surfaces (fruits, leaves, or branches) were extracted using the range of interest (ROI) tool. Several types of contrast color indices were designed and tested. In this study, the fruit image was enhanced using the (R-B ) contrast color index because results show that the fruit have the highest color difference among the objects in the image. A dynamic threshold function was derived from this color model and used to distinguish citrus fruit from background. The results show that the algorithm worked well under frontlighting or backlighting condition. However, there are misclassifications when the fruit or the background is under a brighter sunlight.© (2004) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.