FRUIT MATURITY DETERMINATION METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20110040504A1
• Filed: 08/11/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Rong Zhi Xin Science and Technology Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: LIU, TIANTIAN, YANG, LIN, WU, GANG, GU, WELHONG
• Application Number:
  US12/538,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20110040504A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/56
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/025 Fruits or vegetables

Abstract

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for determining fruit maturity is disclosed. The method includes measuring acceleration data associated with an impulse response signal of a target fruit to an excitation force applied to such a target fruit, computing a frequency response of the impulse response signal based on digitized acceleration data, determining a first order resonance frequency from the frequency response, and non-destructively determining a level of maturity for the target fruit based on one or more physical properties of the target fruit and the first order resonance frequency.

Claims

1. A fruit maturity determination device, comprising:

an actuator configured to apply an excitation force to a target fruit;

an accelerometer configured to measure acceleration data associated with a response signal to the excitation force; and

a processing unit configured to determine a first order resonance frequency based on the response signal and non-destructively determine a level of maturity for the target fruit based on one or more physical properties of the target fruit and the first order resonance frequency.

2. The fruit maturity determination device of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical properties include mass and size of the target fruit.

3. The fruit maturity determination device of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the level of maturity for the target fruit by calculating an elastic modulus of the target fruit.

4. The fruit maturity determination device of claim 1, further comprises:

an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the response signal in an analog domain to a set of discrete digital samples, wherein the processing unit is configured to perform a fast Fourier transform operation on the set of discrete digital samples to generate a frequency response of the response signal.

5. The fruit maturity determination device of claim 4, wherein the processing unit is configured to extract the first order resonance frequency from the frequency response of the response signal.

6. The fruit maturity determination device of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to compare the level of maturity to a pre-determined maturity index for one or more species of the target fruit.

7. The fruit maturity determination device of claim 1, further comprises an output device configured to output the level of maturity for the target fruit that the processing unit has determined.

8. A method for determining fruit maturity, comprising:

measuring acceleration data associated with an impulse response signal of a target fruit to an excitation force applied to the target fruit;

computing a frequency response of the impulse response signal based on digitized acceleration data;

determining a first order resonance frequency from the frequency response; and

non-destructively determining a level of maturity for the target fruit based on one or more physical properties of the target fruit and the first order resonance frequency.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more physical properties include mass and size of the target fruit.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the non-destructively determining a level of maturity further comprises calculating an elastic modulus of the target fruit.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprises comparing the level of maturity to a pre-determined maturity index for one or more species of the target fruit.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprises outputting the level of maturity for the target fruit.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the non-destructively determining a level of maturity is further based on species information of the target fruit.

14. A computer-readable medium containing a sequence of instructions for determining fruit maturity, which when executed by a computing device, causes the computing device to:

measure acceleration data associated with an impulse response signal of a target fruit to an excitation force applied to the target fruit;

compute a frequency response of the impulse response signal based on digitized acceleration data;

determine a first order resonance frequency from the frequency response; and

non-destructively determine a level of maturity for the target fruit based on one or more physical properties of the target fruit and the first order resonance frequency.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the one or more physical properties include mass and size of the target fruit.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further containing a sequence of instructions, which when executed by the computing device, causes the computing device to calculate an elastic modulus of the target fruit.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further containing a sequence of instructions, which when executed by the computing device, causes the computing device to compare the level of maturity to a pre-determined maturity index for one or more species of the target fruit.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further containing a sequence of instructions, which when executed by the computing device, causes the computing device to output the level of maturity for the target fruit.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further containing a sequence of instructions, which when executed by the computing device, causes the computing device to consider species information of the target fruit in determining the level of maturity.