The possibility of using visible/near infrared (Vis/NIR) transmission spectroscopic technique in the 513–850 nm region coupled with partial least squares-linear discriminant analysis (PLS-LDA) and other chemometric methods to classify potatoes with blackheart was investigated. The discrimination performance of different morphological correction methods, including weight correction, height correction, and volume correction, was compared. The results showed that height corrected transmittance has the best performance, with both calibration and validation sets having a success rate of 97.11%. Out of 1800 wavelengths, only six wavelengths (711, 817, 741, 839, 678, and 698 nm) were selected as the optimum wavelengths for the discrimination of blackheart tubers based on principal component analysis (PCA). The data analysis showed that the overall classification rate by PLS-LDA method decreased from 97.11% to 96.82% in calibration set and from 97.11% to 96.53% in validation set, which was acceptable. The importance of these conclusions may be helpful to transfer Vis/NIR transmission technology from laboratory to industrial application in nondestructive, real-time, or portable measurement of potatoes quality.

Wavelength selection is a challenging job for the detection of the bruises on pears using hyperspectral imaging. Most modern research used the feature wavelength set selected by a single selection method which is generally unable to handle the wide variability of the hyperspectral data. A novel framework was proposed in this work to increase the performance of the bruise detection, through combining three state-of-the-art variable selection methods and the concept of feature-level integration. Successive projection algorithm, competitive adaptive reweighted sampling, and RELIEF were first applied to the spectra of the Korla pear, respectively. Then, the corresponding feature wavelength subsets were integrated and an optimal feature wavelength set was constructed. An ELM-based classifier was employed for the pear bruise identification finally. Experimental results demonstrated that the feature wavelength integration resulted in lower detection errors. The proposed method is simple and promising for bruise detection of Korla pears, and it can be utilized for other types of defects on fruits.

Methods suitable for the determination and classification of green timber mix (western hemlock and amabilis fir), with respect to species and moisture content, were developed and tested using near infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics. One thousand two hundred samples were distributed into a calibration set (720 samples) and a prediction set (480 samples). Partial least squares (PLS) and least squares-support vector machines (LS-SVM) for both regression (PLSR and LS-SVR) and classification (PLS-DA and LS-SVC) with different spectral preprocessing methods were implemented. LS-SVM outperformed PLS models for both regression and classification. The coefficient of determination (R2p) and root mean square error (RMSEP) of prediction for the best LS-SVR model with spectra pretreated by smooth and first derivative were 0.9824 and 8.7%, respectively, for wood moisture content prediction in the range of 30% to 253%. The best classification model was LS-SVC with spectra pretreated by smooth and second derivative, with overall accuracies of 99.8% in the prediction set, when the samples were divided into four classes. NIRS combined with LS-SVM can be used as a rapid alternative method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of green hem-fir mix before kiln drying. The results could be helpful for sorting green hem-fir mixes with an on-line application.

Dendrobium, a highly effective traditional Chinese medicinal herb, exhibits significant variations in efficacy and price among different varieties. Therefore, achieving an efficient classification of Dendrobium is crucial. However, most of the existing identification methods for Dendrobium make it difficult to simultaneously achieve both non-destructiveness and high efficiency, making it challenging to truly meet the needs of industrial production. In this study, we combined Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) with multivariate models to classify 10 varieties of Dendrobium. LIBS spectral data for each Dendrobium variety were collected from three circular medicinal blocks. During the data analysis phase, multivariate models to classify different Dendrobium varieties first preprocess the LIBS spectral data using Gaussian filtering and stacked correlation coefficient feature selection. Subsequently, the constructed fusion model is utilized for classification. The results demonstrate that the classification accuracy of 10 Dendrobium varieties reached 100%. Compared to Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), our method improved classification accuracy by 14%, 20%, and 20%, respectively. Additionally, it outperforms three models (SVM, RF, and KNN) with added Principal Component Analysis (PCA) by 10%, 10%, and 17%. This fully validates the excellent performance of our classification method. Finally, visualization analysis of the entire research process based on t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) technology further enhances the interpretability of the model. This study, by combining LIBS and machine learning technologies, achieves efficient classification of Dendrobium, providing a feasible solution for the identification of Dendrobium and even traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

Lumber pieces usually contain defects such as knots, which strongly affect the strength and stiffness. To develop a model for rapid, accurate grading of lumbers based on knots, Douglas fir, spruce-pine-fir (SPF), Chinese hemlock, and Dragon spruce were used. The experiments explored the effects of modelling methods and spectral preprocess methods for knot detection, and investigated the feasibility of using a model built within one species to discriminate the samples from other species, using a novel variable selection method-random frog (RF)- to select effective wavelengths. The results showed that least squares-support vector machines coupled with first derivative preprocessed spectra achieved best performance for both single and mixed models. Models built within Dragon spruce could be used to classify knot samples from SPF and Chinese hemlock but not Douglas fir, and vice versa. Eight effective wavelengths (1314 nm, 1358 nm, 1409 nm, 1340 nm, 1260 nm, 1586 nm, 1288 nm, and 1402 nm) were selected by RF to build effective wavelengths based models. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in the validation set were 98.49%, 93.42%, and 96.30%, respectively. Good results could be obtained when using data at just eight wavelengths, as an alternative to evaluating the whole spectrum.