Algorithm for Discrimination of Brown Rice Kernels Using Machine Vision

An ultimate purpose of this study is to develop an automatic brown rice quality inspection system using image processing technique. In this study emphasis was put on developing an algorithm for discriminating the brown rice kernels depending on their external quality with a color image processing system equipped with an adaptor for magnifying the input image and optical fiber for oblique illumination. Primarily , geometrical and optical features of sample images were analyzed with unhulled paddy and various brown rice kernel samples such as sound, cracked, green-transparent , green-opaque, colored, white-opaque and brokens. Secondary, an algorithm for discrimination of the rice kernels in static state was developed on the basis of the geometrical and optical parameters screened by a statistical analysis(STEPWISE and DISCRIM Procedure, SAS ver.6). Brown rice samples could be discriminated by the algorithm developed in this study with an accuracy of 90% to 96% for the sound , cracked, colored, broken and unhulled , about 81% for the green-transparent and the white-opaque and about 75% for the green-opaque, respectively. A total computing time required for classification was about 100 seconds/1000 kernels with the PC 80486-DX2, 66MHz.