Using online image processing technique for measurement the browning in banana during drying (a new and automatic method)

Determination and controlling of quality parameters can be useful for ordering and marketing of fruits.  Color is the first and the most important parameter in the visual appearance of fruits, specifically in banana.  The aim of this study is to use image-processing technique (online operation) to measure and analyze the color change of banana slices during thin layer drying.  Using online-image-processing technique resulted in designing a machine vision system to control the color change of products automatically.  The results show a linear relation with high correlation coefficient for L*, a* and b* (0.967, 0.962 and 0.991 respectively) between the data of the image-processing technique and the hold-hand colorimeter.  In this study, parameters of chroma, hue and browning index were determined to describe the kinetics of color change in banana slices.  The change of chroma was not significant, but hue was decreased and browning index was increased during drying time.  In addition, the experimental data of the L* and ∆E was fitted using zero and first order models with high correlation coefficient (0.80-0.97).   Keywords: image processing, machine vision, online, banan