JP2008268131A - Method for evaluating quality of grains, and grain leveling cutting apparatus used therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method capable of instantaneously analyzing the cross section (hyaline portion) of a grain, and to provide an apparatus capable of simultaneously cutting a plurality of grains the quality of which is to be evaluated. <P>SOLUTION: A method for evaluating the quality of grains includes the steps of simultaneously taking cross-sectional images of a predetermined number of grains by means of a scanner 1, each of the grains having been cut by the equatorial portion, and loading the images into a PC 3; extracting cross-sections of the grains from the original cross-sectional images of the grains; compositing the extracted cross-sections of the grains and the original cross-sectional images of the grains to generate cross-sectional images of the grains which are free of background noise; extracting powdery portions, by binarizing the contrast between the cross-sections of the grains at a predetermined threshold; computing the pearl-grain rate of a single grain from the cross-sectional area of each grain, calculated from the cross-sectional image of the grain and the area of a powdery portion of the grain; calculating the pearl-grain rate of a group of samples based on a predetermined formula; and evaluating the quality of grains contained in the group of samples. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a grain leveling and cutting apparatus and a grain quality evaluation method used to evaluate the quality of grains of barley, bare barley, wheat, rye, buckwheat, rice and the like.

  One of the quality evaluation standards for wheat by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is the glass ratio. In this method, one grain of wheat is cut with a razor, and the vitreous ratio in the cross section is visually determined. FIG. 5 is an enlarged view showing a cross section of bare wheat. The visual judgment criteria are determined every year at the meeting held by the Japan Rice and Wheat Improvement Association by visually judging the standard cross section (glass ratio) created by the Grain Inspection Association. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, when the grain structure is dense and the cut surface of the grain looks translucent, it is called glassy substance A, and when it appears white and opaque, it is called powdery substance B. The ratio of vitreous grains is called the vitreous rate.

  The glass ratio of one grain is shown in equation (1).

  There has also been proposed a method of taking 100 grains from a sample group (same lot) of the same grain and calculating the glass ratio of the sample group. The calculation formula is shown in Formula (2).

Here, the vitreous grain means a grain having a vitreous part of the cut surface exceeding 70%, and the semi-vitreous grain means a grain having a vitreous part of the cut face of 30% to 70%.

  In general, the higher the glass ratio, the harder (harder) the grains and the higher the protein content. Conversely, the higher the powdery grains, the lower the protein content.

  However, such a visual judgment of glass has the problem that the processing time is long and the judgment differs depending on the visual judge. Further, even for the same judge, the judgment results differ depending on the physical condition, the degree of fatigue, and the timing.

  In place of such visual determination, Non-Patent Document 1 proposes a method of quantifying the vitreous condition in the cross section of barley by image analysis using a digital camera and image processing software.

  That is, in this document, in view of the importance of the glass ratio as an evaluation item for barley quality evaluation, an image of a grain enlarged with a stereomicroscope is taken with a digital camera, and input to a PC (personal computer). Image processing is performed by processing software. In the image processing, the color of the wheat grain cross section is sampled, and the light-colored portion is determined as the powdery portion and the dark portion is determined as the vitreous portion.

“Application of image analysis to glassy quantification of barley” FY 2004, Food Processing Test Results, March 31, 2005, Fukui Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station, Food Processing Research Institute, p. 19-24

In the method for quantifying barley glass based on image analysis proposed in Non-Patent Document 1, an image of wheat grains enlarged by a stereomicroscope is captured by a digital camera. It is difficult to set it vertically. This is a weak point of stereoscopic photography, and the photographed photograph has a blurred outline of the cross section of wheat grains. Furthermore, a certain amount of illumination (illuminance) is required for microscopic photography, and when the illumination light is reflected by the cut surface of wheat and enters the photographing surface of the microscope, the brightness of that portion becomes extremely high, and an accurate image is obtained. It is impossible to shoot. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures such as correcting the image using a color filter.
Therefore, the present invention has an object to provide a method capable of instantaneously analyzing a cross section (vitreous portion) of a grain and a device capable of simultaneously cutting a plurality of grains to be subjected to quality evaluation. And

In order to solve the above-described problem, the grain quality evaluation method of the present invention includes:
Images of the cut surfaces of a predetermined number of grains selected from the same group of samples cut substantially from the equator are simultaneously captured by the imaging means and loaded into a computer.
From the original image of the cut surface of the imaged grain, extract the cross section of the grain,
By synthesizing the image of the extracted grain cross-section and the grain cut surface in the original image to generate an image of the grain cut surface without noise in the background,
By binarizing the contrast of the cut surface of the grain with a predetermined threshold, the powdery material part is extracted,
From the cross-sectional area of each grain obtained from the cross-sectional image of the grain, the area of the powdery portion in the extracted grain is subtracted to calculate the vitreous area of one grain,
Based on the cross-sectional area and the vitreous area of each grain, the rate of one grain is calculated,
The vitreous ratio of the sample group is obtained from the number of vitreous grains having a vitreous ratio exceeding a predetermined upper limit, the number of semi-vitreous grains having a vitreous quality below the upper limit and greater than or equal to the predetermined lower limit, and the total number of samples. ,
Based on this glass rate, the quality of the grain of the sample group is evaluated.

  In the grain quality evaluation method of the present invention, a predetermined number of, for example, 100 grain cut surfaces obtained by cutting substantially the equator are simultaneously imaged and loaded into a computer. The computer performs image processing that makes the background (portion other than the cut surface of the grain) in the original image black and the cut surface of the grain pure white, and extracts (binarizes) the cross section. Thereby, the noise in the background is eliminated. From the binarized image of the cross section, the area of the cut surface of the grain can be obtained. Next, the original image and the image of the cross section of the grain are combined to generate an image of the cut surface of the grain without noise in the background. Since the vitreous portion and the powdery portion are present on the cut surface of the grain, the powdery portion is extracted by binarizing with a predetermined threshold. From the cross-sectional area of each grain obtained from the cross-sectional image of the grain, the area of the powdery portion of the extracted grain is subtracted to calculate one glassy area. The arithmetic expression is the above expression (1). This calculation is performed on all the grains, the glass ratio of the sample group is obtained based on the above equation (2), and the quality is evaluated based on a predetermined evaluation standard.

  A scanner can be used as the imaging means, and images are arranged vertically so that the predetermined number of grain cut surfaces are in close contact with the platen glass of the scanner. As a result, it is possible to measure an image without reflection of illumination light as in the case of imaging with a digital camera and without blurring the outline. Also, the measurement accuracy improves as the resolution of the scanner increases.

In addition, the grain leveling and cutting device of the present invention,
A fixed base plate formed with a plurality of recesses for holding one end portion of each grain, and
A movable base plate set on the fixed base plate and having a grain insertion hole at a position corresponding to the position of the recess,
A movable pressing plate provided with a pressing portion made of an elastic member that is fitted into the grain insertion hole of the movable base plate and presses the other end of each grain whose one end is held in the recess, Each grain is moved along the upper surface of the fixed base plate between the fixed base plate and the movable base plate in a state where each grain is fixed by the fixed base plate, the movable base plate, and the movable press plate. It is characterized by having a configuration in which substantially the equator portion is cut simultaneously.

The grain leveling and cutting apparatus of the present invention efficiently evaluates grain quality. In this grain flat cutting device, each grain is cut so that a large number, for example, the equator part of 100 grains (usually the peripheral part of the center part in the longitudinal direction of the grain which is an ellipsoid) can be cut simultaneously. Hold in an upright position. For this purpose, a fixed base plate in which a plurality of recesses for holding one end of each grain is formed is provided. Furthermore, the movable base plate which formed the grain penetration hole which penetrates the upper half part above the equator part of the grain set to the fixed base plate is provided. Furthermore, a movable pressing plate provided with a pressing portion made of an elastic member that is inserted into the grain insertion hole of the movable base plate and presses the other end portion of each grain whose one end portion is held in the concave portion of the fixed base plate is provided. . In this way, each grain fixed by the fixed base plate, the movable base plate, and the movable press plate is moved between the fixed base plate and the movable base plate along the upper surface of the fixed base plate by moving the cutter. Cut almost the equator of the grain at the same time. Thereby, the equator part of each grain can be cut | disconnected simultaneously in the state which many grains arranged in the recessed part of the fixed baseplate.
In this way, by simultaneously cutting the required number of samples of grains using the grain leveling and cutting device, the sample pretreatment work is simplified and a large number of samples having a certain state of cutting surface are obtained. It will be possible. Also, the analysis work is simplified.

According to the grain quality evaluation method of the present invention, the material that has been cut is conventionally judged visually, and requires high-level specialized technology, which is limited in processing capability and lack of objectivity in the obtained data. However, these problems can be solved all at once.
In addition, according to the grain leveling and cutting apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to carry out safely and in large quantities without any special technique as compared with the conventional cutting method of each grain with a razor.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a process diagram illustrating an image capturing method of a grain according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an image processing method, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a method for extracting a powdery portion of the grain. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a grain leveling and cutting device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, an explanation will be given by taking bare wheat as an example of the grain, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be similarly applied to grains of other types of wheat, rice, and the like.

  In FIG. 1, (a) shows a state in which wheat grains are cut from the equator plane, and 100 pieces are arranged on the platen glass 2 of the scanner 1 with a cut surface. (B) is a plan view showing wheat grains arranged on the platen glass 2. The scanner 1 is scanned, and the scanned image is taken into the PC 3 as shown in (c). The captured image can be confirmed on the display 4.

  FIG. 2A shows a part of the scanned original image. In this original image, noise is added to the background, and an error occurs when calculating the cross-sectional area of wheat grains as it is. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2B, the original image is binarized at a certain level to extract a cross section (white portion) of the wheat grain. Next, the AND of the original image and the cross section is taken to obtain a cross-sectional image of wheat grains with no noise in the background, as shown in FIG.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, extraction of a powdery part is performed. That is, a predetermined threshold value is set for the image in FIG. 2C and binarization processing is performed. In FIG. 3, the white part in a wheat cross section is a powdery part, and a black part is a vitreous part.
No. 1-No. With respect to 100 wheat grains, the respective glass ratios are obtained using the above-described formula (1).

Next, the number of wheat grains (vitreous grains) each having a glass ratio exceeding 70% was counted, and the number of wheat grains (semi-vitreous grains) having a glass ratio of 30% or more and 70% or less was counted. ) To obtain the glass ratio of the sample group.
The quality of the sample group is evaluated based on the obtained glass ratio. Evaluation criteria are based on general standards such as Japan Rice Wheat Improvement Association.

  Table 1 shows the calculation method (control) of the glass ratio by visual observation and the calculation result by the automatic calculation of the glass ratio according to the present invention for three lots of bare barley. By comparison, it can be seen that the method of the present invention and the conventional method give extremely close results.

Next, the grain leveling and cutting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 4, the grain leveling and cutting device 10 according to the present embodiment is set on a fixed base plate 11 having a plurality of concave portions 11 a that hold one end of each grain, and the concave base 11. The other end of each grain, which is inserted into the grain insertion hole 12a of the movable base plate 12 and has one end held in the recess 11a. And a movable pressing plate 13 provided with a pressing portion 13a made of an elastic member that presses the portion. The movable base plate 12 and the movable pressing plate 13 are rotatably attached by hinges 14 at the ends. In a state where each grain is fixed by the fixed base plate 11, the movable base plate 12, and the movable pressing plate 13, the cutter 15 is disposed between the fixed base plate 11 and the movable base plate 12 along the upper surface of the fixed base plate 11. To cut the equator part of each grain at the same time.

  In this way, by simultaneously cutting the necessary number of samples of grains using the grain leveling and cutting device 10, the sample pretreatment work is simplified, and a large number of samples having a certain state of cutting surface are obtained. You can get it. Also, the analysis work is simplified.

  The present invention provides a method capable of instantaneously analyzing a cross section (vitreous portion) of a grain, and an apparatus capable of simultaneously cutting a plurality of grains subject to quality evaluation at the same time as agricultural quality control or It can be used in the field of distribution.

It is process drawing which shows the image capturing method of the grain by embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the image processing method by embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the extraction method of the powdery part of a grain by embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the grain flat cutting apparatus by embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the vitreous part and powdery part in a wheat grain.

Explanation of symbols

1 Scanner 2 Platen Glass 3 Personal Computer (PC)
4 Display 10 Grain flat cutting device 11 Fixed base plate 11a Recess 12 Movable base plate 12a Grain insertion hole 13 Movable pressing plate 13a Pressing portion 14 Hinge 15 Cutter

Claims (3)

Images of the cut surfaces of a predetermined number of grains selected from the same group of samples cut substantially from the equator are simultaneously captured by the imaging means and loaded into a computer.
From the original image of the cut surface of the imaged grain, extract the cross section of the grain,
By synthesizing the image of the extracted grain cross-section and the grain cut surface in the original image to generate an image of the grain cut surface without noise in the background,
By binarizing the contrast of the cut surface of the grain with a predetermined threshold, the powdery material part is extracted,
From the cross-sectional area of each grain obtained from the cross-sectional image of the grain, the area of the powdery portion in the extracted grain is subtracted to calculate the vitreous area of one grain,
Based on the cross-sectional area and the vitreous area of each grain, the rate of one grain is calculated,
From the number of grains whose glass ratio exceeds a predetermined upper limit, the number of grains whose glass quality is not more than the upper limit and not less than the predetermined lower limit, and the total number of samples, the glass ratio of the sample group is obtained,
A grain quality evaluation method characterized by evaluating the grain quality of the sample group based on the glass ratio.   2. The grain quality evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup means is a scanner, and the predetermined number of grains are picked up and imaged on a platen glass of the scanner. A fixed base plate formed with a plurality of recesses for holding one end portion of each grain, and
A movable base plate set on the fixed base plate and having a grain insertion hole at a position corresponding to the position of the recess,
A movable pressing plate provided with a pressing portion made of an elastic member that is fitted into the grain insertion hole of the movable base plate and presses the other end of each grain whose one end is held in the recess, Each grain is moved along the upper surface of the fixed base plate between the fixed base plate and the movable base plate in a state where each grain is fixed by the fixed base plate, the movable base plate, and the movable press plate. The grain leveling and cutting apparatus characterized by having a configuration that cuts substantially the equator part of the grain at the same time.