A Deep Learning-Based Model for Date Fruit Classification

Taha M, Zhang Y. DeepDate: A deep fusion model based on whale optimization and artificial neural network for Arabian date classification

PURPOSE

As agricultural technology continues to develop, the scale of planting and production of date fruit is increasing, which brings higher yields. However, the increasing yields also put a lot of pressure on the classification step afterward. Image recognition based on deep learning algorithms can help to identify and classify the date fruit species, even in natural light.

METHOD

In this paper, a deep fusion model based on whale optimization and an artificial neural network for Arabian date classification is proposed. The dataset used in this study includes five classes of date fruit images (Barhi, Khalas, Meneifi, Naboot Saif, Sullaj). The process of designing each model can be divided into three phases. The first phase is feature extraction. The second phase is feature selection. The third phase is the training and testing phase. Finally, the best-performing model was selected and compared with the currently established models (Alexnet, Squeezenet, Googlenet, Resnet50).

RESULTS

The experimental results show that, after trying different combinations of optimization algorithms and classifiers, the highest test accuracy achieved by DeepDate was 95.9%. It takes less time to achieve a balance between classification accuracy and time consumption. In addition, the performance of DeepDate is better than that of many deep transfer learning models such as Alexnet, Squeezenet, Googlenet, VGG-19, NasNet, and Inception-V3.

CONCLUSION

The proposed DeepDate improves the accuracy and efficiency of classifying date fruits and achieves better results in classification metrics such as accuracy and F1. DeepDate provides a promising classification solution for date fruit classification with higher accuracy. To further advance the industry, it is recommended that stakeholders invest in technology transfer programs to bring advanced image recognition and AI tools to smaller producers, enhancing sustainability and productivity across the sector. Collaborations between agricultural technologists and growers could also foster more tailored solutions that address specific regional challenges in date fruit production.

Classification and identification of agricultural products based on improved MobileNetV2

With the advancement of technology, the demand for increased production efficiency has gradually risen, leading to the emergence of new trends in agricultural automation and intelligence. Precision classification models play a crucial role in helping farmers accurately identify, classify, and process various agricultural products, thereby enhancing production efficiency and maximizing the economic value of agricultural products. The current MobileNetV2 network model is capable of performing the aforementioned tasks. However, it tends to exhibit recognition biases when identifying different subcategories within agricultural product varieties. To address this challenge, this paper introduces an improved MobileNetV2 convolutional neural network model. Firstly, inspired by the Inception module in GoogLeNet, we combine the improved Inception module with the original residual module, innovatively proposing a new Res-Inception module. Additionally, to further enhance the model's accuracy in detection tasks, we introduce an efficient multi-scale cross-space learning module (EMA) and embed it into the backbone structure of the network. Experimental results on the Fruit-360 dataset demonstrate that the improved MobileNetV2 outperforms the original MobileNetV2 in agricultural product classification tasks, with an accuracy increase of 1.86%.

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Model for the Classification of Varieties of Date Palm Fruits (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

The popularity and demand for high-quality date palm fruits (Phoenix dactylifera L.) have been growing, and their quality largely depends on the type of handling, storage, and processing methods. The current methods of geometric evaluation and classification of date palm fruits are characterised by high labour intensity and are usually performed mechanically, which may cause additional damage and reduce the quality and value of the product. Therefore, non-contact methods are being sought based on image analysis, with digital solutions controlling the evaluation and classification processes. The main objective of this paper is to develop an automatic classification model for varieties of date palm fruits using a convolutional neural network (CNN) based on two fundamental criteria, i.e., colour difference and evaluation of geometric parameters of dates. A CNN with a fixed architecture was built, marked as DateNET, consisting of a system of five alternating Conv2D, MaxPooling2D, and Dropout classes. The validation accuracy of the model presented in this study depended on the selection of classification criteria. It was 85.24% for fruit colour-based classification and 87.62% for the geometric parameters only; however, it increased considerably to 93.41% when both the colour and geometry of dates were considered.

DPXception: a lightweight CNN for image-based date palm species classification

Introduction

Date palm species classification is important for various agricultural and economic purposes, but it is challenging to perform based on images of date palms alone. Existing methods rely on fruit characteristics, which may not be always visible or present. In this study, we introduce a new dataset and a new model for image-based date palm species classification.

Methods

Our dataset consists of 2358 images of four common and valuable date palm species (Barhi, Sukkari, Ikhlas, and Saqi), which we collected ourselves. We also applied data augmentation techniques to increase the size and diversity of our dataset. Our model, called DPXception (Date Palm Xception), is a lightweight and efficient CNN architecture that we trained and fine-tuned on our dataset. Unlike the original Xception model, our DPXception model utilizes only the first 100 layers of the Xception model for feature extraction (Adapted Xception), making it more lightweight and efficient. We also applied normalization prior to adapted Xception and reduced the model dimensionality by adding an extra global average pooling layer after feature extraction by adapted Xception.

Results and discussion

We compared the performance of our model with seven well-known models: Xception, ResNet50, ResNet50V2, InceptionV3, DenseNet201, EfficientNetB4, and EfficientNetV2-S. Our model achieved the highest accuracy (92.9%) and F1-score (93%) among the models, as well as the lowest inference time (0.0513 seconds). We also developed an Android smartphone application that uses our model to classify date palm species from images captured by the smartphone's camera in real time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to provide a public dataset of date palm images and to demonstrate a robust and practical image-based date palm species classification method. This work will open new research directions for more advanced date palm analysis tasks such as gender classification and age estimation.

MRI-Based Effective Ensemble Frameworks for Predicting Human Brain Tumor

The diagnosis of brain tumors at an early stage is an exigent task for radiologists. Untreated patients rarely survive more than six months. It is a potential cause of mortality that can occur very quickly. Because of this, the early and effective diagnosis of brain tumors requires the use of an automated method. This study aims at the early detection of brain tumors using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and efficient learning paradigms. In visual feature extraction, convolutional neural networks (CNN) have achieved significant breakthroughs. The study involves features extraction by deep convolutional layers for the efficient classification of brain tumor victims from the normal group. The deep convolutional neural network was implemented to extract features that represent the image more comprehensively for model training. Using deep convolutional features helps to increase the precision of tumor and non-tumor patient classifications. In this paper, we experimented with five machine learnings (ML) to heighten the understanding and enhance the scope and significance of brain tumor classification. Further, we proposed an ensemble of three high-performing individual ML models, namely Extreme Gradient Boosting, Ada-Boost, and Random Forest (XG-Ada-RF), to derive binary class classification output for detecting brain tumors in images. The proposed voting classifier, along with convoluted features, produced results that showed the highest accuracy of 95.9% for tumor and 94.9% for normal. Compared to individual methods, the proposed ensemble approach demonstrated improved accuracy and outperformed the individual methods.

TinyML-Sensor for Shelf Life Estimation of Fresh Date Fruits

Fresh dates have a limited shelf life and are susceptible to spoilage, which can lead to economic losses for producers and suppliers. The problem of accurate shelf life estimation for fresh dates is essential for various stakeholders involved in the production, supply, and consumption of dates. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is one of the essential methods that improves the quality and increases the shelf life of fresh dates by reducing the rate of ripening. Therefore, this study aims to apply fast and cost-effective non-destructive techniques based on machine learning (ML) to predict and estimate the shelf life of stored fresh date fruits under different conditions. Predicting and estimating the shelf life of stored date fruits is essential for scheduling them for consumption at the right time in the supply chain to benefit from the nutritional advantages of fresh dates. The study observed the physicochemical attributes of fresh date fruits, including moisture content, total soluble solids, sugar content, tannin content, pH, and firmness, during storage in a vacuum and MAP at 5 and 24 ∘C every 7 days to determine the shelf life using a non-destructive approach. TinyML-compatible regression models were employed to predict the stages of fruit development during the storage period. The decrease in the shelf life of the fruits begins when they transition from the Khalal stage to the Rutab stage, and the shelf life ends when they start to spoil or ripen to the Tamr stage. Low-cost Visible-Near-Infrared (VisNIR) spectral sensors (AS7265x-multi-spectral) were used to capture the internal physicochemical attributes of the fresh fruit. Regression models were employed for shelf life estimation. The findings indicated that vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging with 20% CO2 and N balance efficiently increased the shelf life of the stored fresh fruit to 53 days and 44 days, respectively, when maintained at 5 ∘C. However, the shelf life decreased to 44 and 23 days when the vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging with 20% CO2 and N balance were maintained at room temperature (24 ∘C). Edge Impulse supports the training and deployment of models on low-cost microcontrollers, which can be used to predict real-time estimations of the shelf life of fresh dates using TinyML sensors.

Convolutional Neural Network Model for Variety Classification and Seed Quality Assessment of Winter Rapeseed

The main objective of this study is to develop an automatic classification model for winter rapeseed varieties, to assess seed maturity and damage based on seed colour using a convolutional neural network (CNN). A CNN with a fixed architecture was built, consisting of an alternating arrangement of five classes Conv2D, MaxPooling2D and Dropout, for which a computational algorithm was developed in the Python 3.9 programming language, creating six models depending on the type of input data. Seeds of three winter rapeseed varieties were used for the research. Each imaged sample was 20.000 g. For each variety, 125 weight groups of 20 samples were prepared, with the weight of damaged or immature seeds increasing by 0.161 g. Each of the 20 samples in each weight group was marked by a different seed distribution. The accuracy of the models' validation ranged from 80.20 to 85.60%, with an average of 82.50%. Higher accuracy was obtained when classifying mature seed varieties (average of 84.24%) than when classifying the degree of maturity (average of 80.76%). It can be stated that classifying such fine seeds as rapeseed seeds is a complex process, creating major problems and constraints, as there is a distinct distribution of seeds belonging to the same weight groups, which causes the CNN model to treat them as different.

Generating Image Captions Using Bahdanau Attention Mechanism and Transfer Learning

Automatic image caption prediction is a challenging task in natural language processing. Most of the researchers have used the convolutional neural network as an encoder and decoder. However, an accurate image caption prediction requires a model to understand the semantic relationship that exists between the various objects present in an image. The attention mechanism performs a linear combination of encoder and decoder states. It emphasizes the semantic information present in the caption with the visual information present in an image. In this paper, we incorporated the Bahdanau attention mechanism with two pre-trained convolutional neural networks—Vector Geometry Group and InceptionV3—to predict the captions of a given image. The two pre-trained models are used as encoders and the Recurrent neural network is used as a decoder. With the help of the attention mechanism, the two encoders are able to provide semantic context information to the decoder and achieve a bilingual evaluation understudy score of 62.5. Our main goal is to compare the performance of the two pre-trained models incorporated with the Bahdanau attention mechanism on the same dataset.

Computer Vision System for Mango Fruit Defect Detection Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network

Machine learning techniques play a significant role in agricultural applications for computerized grading and quality evaluation of fruits. In the agricultural domain, automation improves the quality, productivity, and economic growth of a country. The quality grading of fruits is an essential measure in the export market, especially defect detection of a fruit’s surface. This is especially pertinent for mangoes, which are highly popular in India. However, the manual grading of mango is a time-consuming, inconsistent, and subjective process. Therefore, a computer-assisted grading system has been developed for defect detection in mangoes. Recently, machine learning techniques, such as the deep learning method, have been used to achieve efficient classification results in digital image classification. Specifically, the convolution neural network (CNN) is a deep learning technique that is employed for automated defect detection in mangoes. This study proposes a computer-vision system, which employs CNN, for the classification of quality mangoes. After training and testing the system using a publicly available mango database, the experimental results show that the proposed method acquired an accuracy of 98%.