Sensors developed for detecting fruit ripeness

The ripeness of fruit and vegetables can now be checked using a visible light sensor, thanks to work by a Turkish research team. As Hack A Day reports, the project aims to detect ripeness in fruit and vegetables by monitoring pigment changes, rather than using cameras. The process relies on data captured by an AS7341 visible light sensor. This allows a better read of the actual light reflected by the fruit, as determined by the pigments in the skin which are directly related to ripeness.

In tests, sample readings were taken from a series of fruit and vegetables over a period of several days, which allowed a database to be built up of the produce at various stages of ripeness. This was then used to create a TensorFlow model which can determine the ripeness of fruit held under the sensor with a reasonable degree of certainty.