Hyperspectral-imaging-based techniques applied to wheat kernels characterization

Single kernels of durum wheat have been analyzed by hyperspectral imaging (HSI). Such an approach is based on the utilization of an integrated hardware and software architecture able to digitally capture and handle spectra as an image sequence, as they results along a pre-defined alignment on a surface sample properly energized. The study was addressed to investigate the possibility to apply HSI techniques for classification of different types of wheat kernels: vitreous, yellow berry and fusarium-damaged. Reflectance spectra of selected wheat kernels of the three typologies have been acquired by a laboratory device equipped with an HSI system working in near infrared field (1000-1700 nm). The hypercubes were analyzed applying principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce the high dimensionality of data and for selecting some effective wavelengths. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was applied for classification of the three wheat typologies. The study demonstrated that good classification results were obtained not only considering the entire investigated wavelength range, but also selecting only four optimal wavelengths (1104, 1384, 1454 and 1650 nm) out of 121. The developed procedures based on HSI can be utilized for quality control purposes or for the definition of innovative sorting logics of wheat. © 2012 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).