Computer Vision and Machine Learning Analysis of Commercial Rice Grains: A Potential Digital Approach for Consumer Perception Studies

Rice quality assessment is essential for meeting high-quality standards and consumer demands. However, challenges remain in developing cost-effective and rapid techniques to assess commercial rice grain quality traits. This paper presents the application of computer vision (CV) and machine learning (ML) to classify commercial rice samples based on dimensionless morphometric parameters and color parameters extracted using CV algorithms from digital images obtained from a smartphone camera. The artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed using nine morpho-colorimetric parameters to classify rice samples into 15 commercial rice types. Furthermore, the ANN models were deployed and evaluated on a different imaging system to simulate their practical applications under different conditions. Results showed that the best classification accuracy was obtained using the Bayesian Regularization (BR) algorithm of the ANN with ten hidden neurons at 91.6% (MSE = <0.01) and 88.5% (MSE = 0.01) for the training and testing stages, respectively, with an overall accuracy of 90.7% (Model 2). Deployment also showed high accuracy (93.9%) in the classification of the rice samples. The adoption by the industry of rapid, reliable, and accurate methods, such as those presented here, may allow the incorporation of different morpho-colorimetric traits in rice with consumer perception studies.