Rice quality analysis using image processing techniques

Abstract

In agricultural industries grain quality evaluation is very big challenge. Quality control is very important in food industry because after harvesting, based on quality parameters food products are classified and graded into different grades. Grain quality evaluation is done manually but it is relative, time consuming, may be varying results and costly. To overcome these limitations and shortcoming image processing techniques is the alternative solution can be used for grain quality analysis. Rice quality is nothing but the combination of physical and chemical characteristics. Grain size and shape, chalkiness, whiteness, milling degree, bulk density and moisture content are some physical characteristics while amylose content, gelatinization temperature and gel consistency are chemical characteristics of rice. The paper presents a solution of grading and evaluation of rice grains on the basis of grain size and shape using image processing techniques. Specifically edge detection algorithm is used to find out the region of boundaries of each grain. In this technique we find the endpoints of each grain and after using caliper we can measure the length and breadth of rice. This method requires minimum time and it is low in cost.