Rapid and accurate discrimination of Chrysanthemum varieties is very important for producers, consumers and market regulators. The feasibility of using hyperspectral imaging combined with deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) algorithm to identify Chrysanthemum varieties was studied in this paper. Hyperspectral images in the spectral range of 874–1734 nm were collected for 11,038 samples of seven varieties. Principal component analysis (PCA) was introduced for qualitative analysis. Score images of the first five PCs were used to explore the differences between different varieties. Second derivative (2nd derivative) method was employed to select optimal wavelengths. Support vector machine (SVM), logistic regression (LR), and DCNN were used to construct discriminant models using full wavelengths and optimal wavelengths. The results showed that all models based on full wavelengths achieved better performance than those based on optimal wavelengths. DCNN based on full wavelengths obtained the best results with an accuracy close to 100% on both training set and testing set. This optimal model was utilized to visualize the classification results. The overall results indicated that hyperspectral imaging combined with DCNN was a very powerful tool for rapid and accurate discrimination of Chrysanthemum varieties. The proposed method exhibited important potential for developing an online Chrysanthemum evaluation system.

Color index and water content are important indicators for evaluating the quality of fresh-cut potato tuber slices. In this study, hyperspectral imaging combined with multivariate analysis was used to detect the color parameters (L*, a*, b*, Browning index (BI), L*/b*) and water content of fresh-cut potato tuber slices. The successive projections algorithm (SPA) and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) were used to extract characteristic wavelengths, partial least squares (PLS) and least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) were utilized to establish regression models. For color prediction, R²_c, R²_p and RPD of all the LSSVM models established for the five color indicators L*, a*, b*, BI, L*/b* were exceeding 0.90, 0.84 and 2.1, respectively. For water content prediction, R²_c, R²_p, and RPD of the LSSVM models were over 0.80, 0.77 and 1.9, respectively. LS-SVM model based on full spectra was used to reappear the spatial distribution of color and water content in fresh-cut potato tuber slices by pseudo-color imaging since it performed best in most cases. The results illustrated that hyperspectral imaging could be an effective method for color and water content prediction, which could provide solid theoretical basis for subsequent grading and processing of fresh-cut potato tuber slices.

Radix Astragali is a prized traditional Chinese functional food that is used for both medicine and food purposes, with various benefits such as immunomodulation, anti-tumor, and anti-oxidation. The geographical origin of Radix Astragali has a significant impact on its quality attributes. Determining the geographical origins of Radix Astragali is essential for quality evaluation. Hyperspectral imaging covering the visible/short-wave near-infrared range (Vis-NIR, 380–1030 nm) and near-infrared range (NIR, 874–1734 nm) were applied to identify Radix Astragali from five different geographical origins. Principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized to form score images to achieve preliminary qualitative identification. PCA and convolutional neural network (CNN) were used for feature extraction. Measurement-level fusion and feature-level fusion were performed on the original spectra at different spectral ranges and the corresponding features. Support vector machine (SVM), logistic regression (LR), and CNN models based on full wavelengths, extracted features, and fusion datasets were established with excellent results; all the models obtained an accuracy of over 98% for different datasets. The results illustrate that hyperspectral imaging combined with CNN and fusion strategy could be an effective method for origin identification of Radix Astragali.

The object detection method based on deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) significantly improves the detection performance of wheat head on wheat images obtained from the near ground. Nevertheless, for wheat head images of different stages, high density, and overlaps captured by the aerial-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the existing deep learning-based object detection methods often have poor detection effects. Since the receptive field of CNN is usually small, it is not conducive to capture global features. The visual Transformer can capture the global information of an image; hence we introduce Transformer to improve the detection effect and reduce the computation of the network. Three object detection networks based on Transformer are designed and developed, including the two-stage method FR-Transformer and the one-stage methods R-Transformer and Y-Transformer. Compared with various other prevalent object detection CNN methods, our FR-Transformer method outperforms them by 88.3% for AP₅₀ and 38.5% for AP₇₅. The experiments represent that the FR-Transformer method can gratify requirements of rapid and precise detection of wheat heads by the UAV in the field to a certain extent. These more relevant and direct information provide a reliable reference for further estimation of wheat yield.

Sodium pyrosulfite is a browning inhibitor used for the storage of fresh-cut potato slices. Excessive use of sodium pyrosulfite can lead to sulfur dioxide residue, which is harmful for the human body. The sulfur dioxide residue on the surface of fresh-cut potato slices immersed in different concentrations of sodium pyrosulfite solution was classified by near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) system and portable near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer. Principal component analysis was used to analyze the object-wise spectra, and support vector machine (SVM) model was established. The classification accuracy of calibration set and prediction set were 98.75% and 95%, respectively. Savitzky–Golay algorithm was used to recognize the important wavelengths, and SVM model was established based on the recognized important wavelengths. The final classification accuracy was slightly less than that based on the full spectra. In addition, the pixel-wise spectra extracted from NIR-HSI system could realize the visualization of different samples, and intuitively reflect the differences among the samples. The results showed that it was feasible to classify the sulfur dioxide residue on the surface of fresh-cut potato slices immersed in different concentration of sodium pyrosulfite solution by NIR spectra. It provided an alternative method for the detection of sulfur dioxide residue on the surface of fresh-cut potato slices.

Rapid and nondestructive determination of quality attributes in fresh and dry Chrysanthemum morifolium is of great importance for quality sorting and monitoring during harvest and trade. Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging covering the spectral range of 874–1734 nm was used to detect chlorogenic acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, and 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid content in Chrysanthemum morifolium. Fresh and dry Chrysanthemum morifolium flowers were studied for harvest and trade. Pixelwise spectra were preprocessed by wavelet transform (WT) and area normalization, and calculated as average spectrum. Successive projections algorithm (SPA) was used to select optimal wavelengths. Partial least squares (PLS), extreme learning machine (ELM), and least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) were used to build calibration models based on full spectra and optimal wavelengths. Calibration models of fresh and dry flowers obtained good results. Calibration models for chlorogenic acid in fresh flowers obtained best performances, with coefficient of determination (R²) over 0.85 and residual predictive deviation (RPD) over 2.50. Visualization maps of chlorogenic acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, and 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid in single fresh and dry flowers were obtained. The overall results showed that hyperspectral imaging was feasible to determine chlorogenic acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, and 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid. Much more work should be done in the future to improve the prediction performance.