Fruit Ripeness Estimation for Avocado Using Thermal Imaging

Novel technologies have always been an indispensable part of the scientific enterprise and a catalyst for new discoveries. The invisible radiation patterns of objects are converted into visible images called thermograms or thermal images. Thermal images can be utilized to estimate the ripeness of some fruits which do not change their color from yellow to green when they are ripe. Thermal imaging techniques are very helpful since color and fluorescent analytical approaches cannot be applied to these fruits. In this work, it is shown that different ripeness levels of avocado (Hall type) using a non-destructive method called thermal imaging, in two dimensional spaces. The work is based on the fact that fruits have different specific heat capacities at different temperatures, thus making their thermal images clear indicators of ripeness.