Abstract:
Determination of fruit's quality using nondestructive method with several wavelengthsof infrared light is a complexity in data processing. It is time consuming and expensive. Thisthesis proposes a nondestructive method using a suitable wavelength of infrared light todetermine inner quality of a fruit. The thesis also proposes two new methods of infraredpenetrating through the fruit skin in order to check the fruit quality (wave scattering andreflexing from insides of fruit). An intensive consideration was made in choosing a suitablewavelength of light that easily passes the fruit's peel and can absorbed chemical constituent offruit's flesh.In using nondestructive method, two important problems are encountered intransmitting infrared light through the fruit. First, it is difficult for a ligh to pass inner side of thefruit. The fruit skin and its flesh almost absorb the light. Secondly, size and asymmetric shape ofthe fruit has an effect on the process of quality determination.This thesis proposed two new methods in solving a distortion of infrared transmissionthrough the fruit for measuring fruit's quality. The first method, called inside scattering method,is to transmit light from the bottom up through the core of the fruit. The light will scatter throughthe fruit, and the output signal will be detected on the h i t skin. This method will gain morebenefit for some fruits having hollow core structure. The method has an advantage that it is lesstime consuming because the light can easily pass through the h i t . However, a disadvantage isimpacted by size and shape of a fruit.The second method, called inside reflexing, is to send and receive signal in the vicinityarea. It will reduce the impact of the fruit's size and shape. However, the method takes muchlonger time.The experimental results indicated that the wavelength at 960 and 980 nrn are suitablefor measuring sugar content of an orange and also for the flesh translucent disorder of amangosteen, respectively.The determining accuracy of a mangosteen flesh translucent disorder is 54 %, wherebythe determination of sugar content of an orange fruit gives an error of 0.153 Brix.