Investigating the relationship between strawberry maturity and glossiness on the surface during storage through digital image analysis

This study aimed to classify the maturity of strawberries and evaluate its impact on surface glossiness during storage using digital images. Five hundred images of strawberries were captured over 10 days using a digital camera. Color and texture features of the gray level co-occurrence matrix were extracted from each component of the HSV color space, which were used to classify maturity levels through linear discriminant analysis. The strawberry samples were classified with an overall accuracy of 82% in five classes. Furthermore, as an index of surface glossiness to reflect visual freshness, changes in the luminance distribution on the strawberry surface were evaluated. The later the harvest, the quicker the deterioration in the glossiness of strawberries. Strawberries that are ripe enough for harvesting but still relatively immature can be stored for a longer period than fully ripe strawberries while retaining better surface glossiness.