Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging System Calibration, Correction and Application for Pear Surface Damage Detection

Spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) is a non-contact wide-field optical imaging technique for optical property detection. This study aimed to establish an SFDI system and investigate the effects of system calibration, error analysis and correction on the measurement of optical properties. Optical parameter characteristic measurements of normal pears with three different damage types were performed using the calibrated system. The obtained absorption coefficient μ(a) and the reduced scattering coefficient μ’(s) were used for discriminating pears with different surface damage using a linear discriminant analysis model. The results showed that at 527 nm and 675 nm, the pears’ quadruple classification (normal, bruised, scratched and abraded) accuracy using the SFDI technique was 92.5% and 83.8%, respectively, which has an advantage compared with the conventional planar light classification results of 82.5% and 77.5%. The three-way classification (normal, minor damage and serious damage) SFDI technique was as high as 100% and 98.8% at 527 nm and 675 nm, respectively, while the classification accuracy of conventional planar light was 93.8% and 93.8%, respectively. The results of this study indicated that SFDI has the potential to detect different damage types in fruit and that the SFDI technique has a promising future in agricultural product quality inspection in further research.