Grading of ripening stages of red banana using dielectric properties changes and image processing approach

In this research work, the dielectric properties of red banana fruit are studied at different ripening temperatures for developing a rapid and non-destructive assessment method to measure the ripening stages of red banana. A 5 volt sine wave AC power supply and a rectangular parallel plate capacitor circuit are used to measure the difference in dielectric properties caused by the introduction of a red banana in between the plates. The values of properties like capacitance and relative permittivity are increased continuously whereas impedance and admittance are decreased gradually with increase in ripening stages of red banana. In image processing approach, Noise Reductant Local Binary Pattern (NRLBP), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Completed Local Binary Pattern (CLBP) based techniques are used for red banana's ripening grade determination. The processing stages involved are enhancement, Binary Pattern generation and classification. The variant Binary patterns are tested on noisy as well as noiseless condition and the results are compared. A novel enhancement technique for banana ripening grade determination is proposed based on segmentation using Tsallis entropy. Also novel idea on the automation of q parameter involved in Tsallis Entropy is implemented. The threshold parameter of the Noise Reductant Local Binary Pattern (NRLBP) varied and its effect on classification rate is studied. A new modification is proposed and implemented on NRLBP to accommodate uniform background and areas with the image. Classification is done using Chi-Square distance/nearest neighbor and Fuzzy C means (FCM) clustering. The results are compared and superiority of FCM method for banana ripening grade determination is noted.