Nondestructive assessment of ripeness in kiwifruit with near-infrared pulse illumination

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a nondestructive method for assessing kiwifruit ripeness using near-infrared pulse illumination at 800 nm, tracking temporal light profile changes over ten days.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nondestructive ripeness assessment technique based on near-infrared pulse measurements and new indices to quantify ripeness changes.

Findings

Indices r(n) and W_1(n) effectively track ripeness.

Method works on golden kiwifruits over ten days.

Nonmonotonic behavior observed in ripeness indices.

Abstract

We investigate the ripeness of kiwifruit nondestructively with near-infrared pulse illumination. With this measurements in time domain, only one frequency (the wavelength 800 nm is required. Measurements were performed on three golden kiwifruits over a period of ten days. To quantify changes in temporal profiles of the detected light, we introduce two indices: the relative ripeness $r(n)$ and the first Wasserstein distance $W_1(n)$. Both indices exhibit nonmonotonic behavior.