Indonesian Student Invents Fruit Quality Detector

Bandar Lampung, Lampung (Antara) - An Indonesian student from Darmajaya Institute of Informatics and Business (IBI), Lampung, Beny Ardy, has invented a digital tool to detect the quality of fruits using a mobile-based matching template method. The tool detects the fruit's quality by comparing the picture of the detected fruit with the reference template picture, he explained here on Thursday. "This technique will measure the similarities between the master picture and the input picture. The picture of a good quality fruit will show high similarities with that of the template image," Ardy pointed out. He elaborated that the template image is an image of a good quality fruit used as a reference to gauge the fruit quality. The comparison process deploys a grayscale method by changing the picture's colors to grey, and then, it is equalized with a histogram process. Finally, the result of the detection is notified to the user. The principle of this method is drawing comparisons between the two images. If the picture of the fruit bears a high similarity with the template image then it indicates that the fruit is of good quality. But, if the comparison does not reveal any similarities until it is over the threshold level or value then the object image will be categorized as an unidentified object. In his research, Ardy used a golden melon. He has compared the targeted fruit with that of the reference golden melon fruit. His experiment showed that the picture of the targeted fruit has a similar quality level as that of the reference golden melon's image. According to him, this technology deploys a simple algorithm and mobile-based platform, and therefore, one can use the application anywhere and at any time. "So far, this technology can only be applied to a golden melon. There is still a lot of work to develop and improve this software. In addition, we need a proper lighting intensity as the application will not work if the light is too bright or dim," Ardy noted. (*)