NIR Hyperspectral Imaging for Mapping of Moisture Content Distribution in Tea Buds during Dehydration

Abstract

This work employed hyperspectral imaging technique to map the spatial distribution of moisture content (MC) in tea buds during dehydration. Hyperspectral images (874–1734 nm) of tea buds were acquired in six dehydrated periods (0, 3, 6, 9, 14 and 21 min) at 80°C. The spectral reflectance of tea buds were extracted from region of interests (ROIs) in the hyperspectral images. Competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) was used to select effective wavelengths (EWs) and ten representing the wavelengths were selected. The quantitative relationship between spectral reflectance and the measured MC values of tea buds was built using partial least square regression (PLSR) based on full spectra and EWs. The quantitative model established using EWs, which had a result of coefficient of correlation (R P ) of 0.941 and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 5.31%, was considered as the optimal model for mapping MC distribution. The optimal model was finally applied to predict the MC of each pixel within of the tea bud sample and built the MC distribution maps by utilization of a developed image processing procedure. Results demonstrated that the hyperspectral imaging technique has the potential of mapping the MC spatial distribution in tea buds in dehydrated process.