Citrus canker detection using hyperspectral reflectance imaging and PCA-based image classification method

Citrus canker is one of the most devastating diseases that threaten marketability of citrus crops. Technologies that can efficiently identify citrus canker would assure fruit quality and safety and enhance the competitiveness and profitability of the citrus industry. This research was aimed to investigate the potential of using hyperspectral imaging technique for detecting canker lesions on citrus fruit. A portable hyperspectral imaging system consisting of an automatic sample handling unit, a light source, and a hyperspectral imaging unit was developed for citrus canker detection. The imaging system was used to acquire reflectance images from citrus samples in the wavelength range between 400 and 900 nm. Ruby Red grapefruits with normal and various diseased skin conditions including canker, copper burn, greasy spot, wind scar, cake melanose, and specular melanose were tested. Hyperspectral reflectance images were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) to compress the 3-D hyperspectral image data and extract useful image features that could be used to discriminate cankerous samples from normal and other diseased samples. Image processing and classification algorithms were developed based upon the transformed images of PCA. The overall accuracy for canker detection was 92.7%. Four optimal wavelengths (553, 677, 718, and 858 nm) were identified in visible and short-wavelength near-infrared region that could be adopted by a future multispectral imaging solution for detecting citrus canker on a sorting machine. This research demonstrated that hyperspectral imaging technique could be used for discriminating citrus canker from other confounding diseases. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008.