Abstract

The interaction of light with biological materials, such as fruits and vegetables, is a complex process which involves both absorption, and scattering events at different scales. Measuring the optical properties of a fruit allows understanding the physical and chemical characteristics. In this paper, an optical bench based on the use of a continuous laser source and a CCD camera was developed to study the light diffusion inside apple tissue structures. The method refers to the well-known steady-state spatially resolved method. First, the optoelectronics system was tested with a tissue phantom in order to show the optimal sensing range required to obtain the best estimated optical properties. Second, experimental results were obtained using peeled and unpeeled apples as interrogated tissues. The data were confronted with a diffusion model in order to extract the optical properties at two wavelengths of 633, and 852 nm. To better understand the effect of the apple tissue structures, investigations into the propagation of light through a half cut apple were also performed.

© 2015 SPIE