IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD TO DETERMINE SURFACE AREA AND VOLUME OF AXI-SYMMETRIC AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Abstract

ABSTRACT An image processing based method was developed to measure volume and surface area of ellipsoidal agricultural products such as eggs, lemons, limes, and peaches. The method assumes that each product has an axi-symmetric geometry and is a sum of superimposed elementary frustums of right circular cones. The product volume and surface area are calculated as the sum of the volumes and surface areas of individual frustums using Matlab®. The dimensions of individual frustums are determined from a digitized picture of the product acquired by a Charged Coupled Device (CCD) camera and processed in Adobe Photoshop®. The volumes and surface areas computed showed good agreement with analytical and experimental results. The developed method proved to be accurate, precise, and easy to use.