Shadow detection in complex images using neural networks: Application to wine grape seed segmentation

Abstract

Determining the exact point of ripening and harvesting of the grapes is essential for obtaining a wine of quality. Recent methods for determining the ripening of the grapes are based on visual inspection of the seed. These methods have the advantage of being simple and of low-cost, but they are prone to human error, and a large number of samples are required to be analyzed in order to obtain representative information of the reality. Currently, the analysis of the seed is made using images obtained with a digital camera, which have major problems as the existence of shadows and highlights. This paper proposes a segmentation method of grape seed in complex images based on artificial neural networks and color images. The method is robust to imperfections in the images, which permits that this type of analysis is installed in reality. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.