Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 33 (2001) 19 33 www.elsevier.

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Monitoring milling quality of rice by image analysis

B.K. Yadav, V.K. Jindal *
Processing Technology Program, School of En6ironment, Resources and De6elopment, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand Received 6 November 2000; received in revised form 18 May 2001; accepted 20 July 2001

Abstract Rough rice is milled to produce polished edible grain by rst subjecting to dehusking or removal of hulls and then to the removal of brownish outer bran layer known as whitening. The control of whiteness (degree of milling) and percentage of broken kernels in milled rice is required to minimize the economic loss to the millers. Digital image analysis was used to determine the head rice yield (HRY), representing the proportion by weight of milled kernels with three quarters or more of their original length, and the whiteness of milled rice. Ten varieties of Thai rice were subjected to varying degrees of milling by adjusting the test duration from 0.5 to 2.5 min. Three-dimensional features (namely, length, perimeter and projected area) were extracted from the images of individual kernels in a milled sample and used to compute a characteristic dimension ratio (CDR) dened as the ratio of the sum of a particular dimensional feature of all head rice kernels to that of all kernels comprising head and broken rice in the sample. HRY and CDR were found to be related by power functions based on the above-mentioned dimensional features, with R 2 more than 0.99 in all cases. The CDR based on the projected area of kernels in their natural rest position provided the best estimate of the HRY with the lowest root mean square error of 1.1% among all dimensional features studied. In case of the whiteness of milled samples, the values provided by a commercial whiteness meter and the mean of gray level distribution determined by image analysis correlated with an R 2 value of 0.99. The results of this study showed that two-dimensional imaging of milled rice kernels could be used for making quantitative assessment of HRY and degree of milling for on-line monitoring and better control of the rice milling operation. 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +66-2-524-5457; fax: +66-2-524-6200. E-mail address: jindal@ait.ac.th (V.K. Jindal). 0168-1699/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 8 - 1 6 9 9 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 6 9 - 7

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Keywords: Head rice yield; Degree of rice milling; Milled rice whiteness; Rice quality determination; Image analysis; Machine vision

1. Introduction Rice constitutes the worlds principal source of food, being the basic grain for the planets largest population. For tropical Asians it is the staple food and is the major source of dietary energy and protein. In Southeast Asia alone, rice is the staple food for 80% of the population (Armienta, 1991). Milling of rough rice (or paddy) is usually done at about 14% dry basis moisture content to produce white, polished edible grain, due to consumer preference. From the economic point of view, the quality of milled rice is of paramount importance since the grain size and shape, whiteness and cleanliness are strongly correlated with the transaction price of rice (Conway et al., 1991). All these factors are closely related to the process of milling, in which rough rice is rst subjected to dehusking or removal of hulls and then to the removal of brownish outer bran layer, known as whitening. Finally, polishing is carried out to remove the bran particles and provides surface gloss to the edible white portion. A high percentage of broken grains in the milled product or low head rice recovery represents a direct economic loss to the millers. Head rice yield (HRY) represents the weight percent of milled kernels with three quarters or more of their original length of brown rice relative to rough rice weight. The degree of milling determines the extent of removal of bran layer from the surface of milled kernels and thus relates to their whiteness. HRY reduces with the increased duration of milling. Hence in the milling process, the pressure in the milling chamber and the duration of milling must be adjusted to get the maximum output. The extent of losses during milling depends on many factors, such as variety and condition of rough rice, degree of milling required, the kind of rice mill used, and the operators. Modern large capacity commercial rice mills use different machines for dehusking, whitening and polishing operations. Besides rubber roll dehuskers, two types of milling machines, namely, abrasive and frictional types, are used for whitening and polishing of grain, respectively. Among horizontal and vertical abrasive type milling machines, the vertical type is more popular. The brown rice is rubbed between the surface of an abrasive cone and sieve tted with a set of rubber brakes. In the frictional type machine, brown rice kernels are rubbed against each other under pressure to get the desired whiteness. The process of bran removal in commercial milling is through intense pressure and friction in a single or multiple pass operation over a very short period of time. Proper setting and adjustment of the clearance between rubber brakes and abrasive cone by the operator are critical factors in the milling operation. In both types of machines, the degree of milling is also controlled by adjusting the pressure in the milling chamber by means of a spring-loaded counterweight at the discharge outlet. In practice most control systems for rice milling equipment are essentially based on manual operation. Informal contacts with several large-scale commercial mills in

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Pathumthani province in central Thailand revealed that milled rice quality is regularly monitored manually at approximate time intervals of 12 h due to unavailability of continuous on-line measurement methods. Actual determinations of HRY and milled rice whiteness are made by laboratory measurements. The necessary adjustments made by a trained operator, based on visual inspection and the results of laboratory measurements, take effect in a few minutes to produce milled rice with a minimum amount of broken kernels and maximum degree of kernel whiteness. Usually milled rice samples obtained by test milling in the laboratory are supplied to the operator and used as reference for each grade of the degree of milling. Despite the extensive use of image analysis in manufacturing and medical industries, its applications are almost non-existent in grain-based industries. The determination of milled rice quality parameters by image processing techniques will enable regular monitoring of milling operation in an objective manner, and thus allow the operator to quickly react within a few minutes to changes in material properties. Fant et al. (1994) determined the gray scale intensity in the digital images of rice samples subjected to various degrees of milling and correlated the mean gray level with lipids concentration on the surface of rice kernels. Liu et al. (1998) used digital image analysis to estimate the area of the bran layer on the surface of rice kernels and correlated with the surface lipids concentration determined by chemical analysis. They reported that the degree of milling could be measured quickly and accurately in terms of the surface lipids concentration in a milled rice sample. Sometimes the degree of rice milling is characterized relative to arbitrary whiteness standards depending upon the type of commercial whiteness meter employed. However, no information is available for the estimation of HRY based on the monitoring of dimensional parameters of kernels for rapid quality assessment. Therefore, the main objective of the present study was to develop techniques that could be used for estimating HRY and degree of milling based on two-dimensional imaging of milled rice kernels being sampled at regular intervals.

2. Approach to the problem Although HRY has been dened as the ratio of the weight of milled head rice kernels to the total weight of the rough rice or paddy kernels for practical purposes, it could also be expressed relative to the total weight of milled rice rather than rough rice. In general, the HRY relative to milled rice weight is about 50% higher than the HRY values based on the weight of rough rice. In general too, it is possible to estimate the weight of the objects having regular shapes based on their dimensional characteristics. Therefore, simple models could be developed for estimating the HRY and whiteness of the milled rice samples using image analysis from the measurements of dimensional features and gray level distribution, respectively, as described in the following sections.

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2.1. Head rice yield (HRY) and characteristic dimension ratio (CDR)
Based on the results of an earlier study for a single variety of rice (Yadav and Jindal, 1998), it was hypothesized that the weight of individual kernels, whether of head rice and broken fraction, is proportional to their respective dimensional features. Accordingly, the weight of a milled rice sample might be expressed as a power function of a composite characteristic dimensional feature derived from the whole and broken kernels in that sample. The characteristic dimensional features of the kernels could be their length (L), perimeter (P) and projected area (A) based on individual measurements. HRY could then be related to the characteristic dimension ratio (CDR) by HRYh(CDR)b or % Hi i=1 HRY = a n m % H i + % Bj
i=1 j=1 n b

(1)

where HRY is the head rice yield dened as the ratio of the weight of head rice to the combined weight of head and broken rice in a milled rice sample, %; Hi is the dimensional feature of the ith head rice kernel; Bj is the dimensional feature of the jth broken rice kernel; n is the number of head rice kernels in the milled rice sample; m is the number of broken rice kernels in the milled rice sample; and a, b are equation parameters. The relationship between HRY and CDR hypothesized in the form of Eq. (1) could be validated by the experimental data on the characteristic dimensional features of the kernels and respective weight fractions of the head rice and broken kernels for different rice varieties. HRY of a milled rice sample could also be expressed on the basis of the initial weight of rough rice, if so desired.

2.2. Whiteness of milled rice

Most commercial whiteness meters operate on the principle of light reectance from the surface of the milled rice to measure its whiteness. Although earlier use of digital image analysis to correlate mean gray level with lipids concentration on the surface of rice kernels has been cited (Fant et al., 1994), it was hypothesized that the overall whiteness of milled rice could be estimated simply from the mean value of the gray level distribution obtained from the digitized image of the bulk sample.

3. Materials and methods

3.1. Rice samples

Rough rice samples of ten varieties, namely, Suphan Buri scented rice (HSPR),

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Suphan Buri-1 (SPR1), Klong Luang scented rice (HKLG), Suphan Buri-90 (SPR90), Royal Rice Department-7 (RD7), Royal Rice Department-23 (RD23), Suphan Buri-60 (SPR60), Chainat-1 (CNT1), Leuang Pra Tew-123 (LPT123) and Mali scented rice-105 (KDML105) were obtained from the Rice Experiment Center, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, with moisture contents ranging from 10 to 13% dry basis. Five samples weighing individually about 200 g, were taken from each rough rice variety and kept separately in polyethylene bags. All rough rice samples were dehusked twice with a testing husker (model THU-35A, Satake Engineering Co. Ltd., Japan), and the brown rice so obtained was subsequently milled using a test mill (model TM 05, Satake Engineering Co. Ltd., Japan). All brown rice samples of each variety were then milled for an arbitrarily selected test duration ranging from a minimum of 0.5 min to a maximum of 2.5 min at intervals of 0.5 min. The variations in degree of milling of rice samples produced 5 levels of HRY and kernel whiteness for each variety. Thus a total of 50 samples was used for determining the milled rice characteristics.

3.2. Imaging of rice kernels

A diagram of the imaging system is shown in Fig. 1. It consisted of a lighting unit, a color CCD camera and a frame grabber connected to a host Pentium 120 MHz computer. The lighting unit comprised a closed cylindrical image chamber tted with a circular 32 W uorescent lamp working at 60 kHz to provide icker-free light. The camera (model 2200, Cohu Inc., USA) was equipped with a manual zoom lens (model S6X11-II, F1.4 and 11.569 mm zoom, Cohu Inc., USA) capable of producing PAL softvideo output with a resolution of 752 (H) 582 (V). An Imascan Chroma-P PCI frame grabber board (IMAGRAPH Corporation, USA) with 2 MB on board memory was used to receive the video signal from the camera. The operation of the system was carefully controlled for extracting reproducible features from the captured images of milled rice samples through various adjust-

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the IA system.

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Table 1 Calibration results for measurements by the imaging setup Actual measurements Diameter (mm) 6.04 7.93 16.00 18.00 23.99 25.95 Projected area (mm2) 28.6 49.4 201.1 254.5 452.0 528.9 Imaging measurements Diameter (mm) 5.98 7.86 16.01 17.78 23.87 25.78 Projected area (mm2) 28.1 48.5 201.1 253.8 457.4 533.5 Difference Diameter (%) 0.91 0.94 0.06 0.11 0.58 0.42 Projected area (%) 1.92 1.88 0.00 0.27 1.20 0.87

ments. All the captured frames were 8-bit (0255) gray scale images. The images of rice kernels were obtained in batch mode for HRY determination. Rice kernels were placed manually without touching each other in a petri dish of about 40 mm 35 mm area directly under the CCD camera. This area could be covered in a 512452 pixels frame with approximately 12 times magnication. The dimensional features of individual kernel images were extracted using the ImageTool program developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas and available from the Internet (ftp://maxrad6.uthscsa.edu). The imaging system was calibrated with the help of brass disks having thickness close to that of milled rice kernels (1.22 2.88 mm) and by determining their diameter and projected area independently by a micrometer with a least count of 0.01 mm. Table 1 shows the estimated average diameter and projected area of the selected disks. These estimates show a maximum absolute difference of 0.94 and 1.92%, respectively, relative to the measured values. The linear measurements on kernels dimensions were subsequently converted into actual values based on the calibration results. The whiteness of milled rice samples was measured with a cylindrical sample holder, 57 mm in diameter and 13 mm deep, and taking the image of the open surface. All measurements on the whiteness of milled rice samples were replicated three times by lling the sample holder each time to attenuate the random error by averaging. A white plate supplied with the commercial whiteness meter (model C-300, Kett Electric Laboratory, Japan) was used for the adjustment of gray level distribution recorded by the camera. The aperture opening of the CCD camera was set at a position to obtain the mean gray level (MGL) of 240 for a 252 252 pixels image of the white plate.

3.3. Determination of HRY

A laboratory rice grader (model TRG 05A, Satake Engineering Co. Ltd., Japan) was used to separate the head and broken kernels in milled rice samples through appropriate adjustment of its settings. The HRY was based on the kernel length equal to or more than 75% of the average length of whole brown rice kernels, as

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already dened. It was found that the grader required a minimum of 12 g milled rice for obtaining reproducible values of HRY differing by less than 1%. Therefore, representative samples of milled rice weighing about 12 g were obtained with a specially fabricated sample divider and separated into head and broken fractions by the laboratory grader for determining HRY. The use of small test samples was necessary to limit the total number of rice kernels for subsequent image analysis. In view of the imprecise separation of kernels by the laboratory grader, all head and broken kernels in their respective fractions were separated manually with the assistance of imaging system and weighed to compute the actual HRY of the representative sample. Later all kernels in the head and broken rice fractions were imaged to extract their dimensional features, namely, length (L), perimeter (P) and projected area (A). The values of CDR were then computed for different milled rice samples and related with their actual HRY to check the applicability of Eq. (1). Finally, the HRY obtained from the laboratory grader was compared with the actual HRY estimated by image analysis.

3.4. Whiteness of milled rice

The whiteness of milled rice samples was rst measured with a commercial whiteness meter (model C-300, Kett Electric Laboratory, Japan) to serve as the reference values. The rice samples were then imaged in 252252 pixels size and analyzed by ImageTool to determine their MGL. The interrelationship between MGL of 50 milled rice samples along with the white plate and the corresponding whiteness values determined by the commercial meter was investigated subsequently.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Estimation of head rice yield by image analysis

Dimensional features of the rice kernels were extracted from their respective images by separating them from the background and identifying each image with a unique number with the help of the ImageTool. Fig. 2 shows typical images of the numbered rice kernels used for the measurement of characteristic dimensional features and the computation of CDR for any selected rice variety. Figs. 35 present the relationships between HRY and CDR based on kernel length, perimeter, and projected area, respectively. Regression analysis showed the existence of a power-law relationship between CDR and HRY. Table 2 presents the values of model parameters estimated by nonlinear regression function of SPSS version 9.05 for Windows with 95% condence interval in each case. These results validated the hypothesis that the HRY of milled rice sample could be estimated with root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 2% from the dimensional features extracted from

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Fig. 2. Images of rice kernels.

the images of the rice kernels in their natural rest position. The plots of actual and estimated values of HRY based on length, perimeter and projected area are shown in Figs. 6 8, respectively. The projected area of kernel images provided the best estimation of HRY in terms of the RMSE determined from the actual and estimated values for all ten Thai rice varieties. Also the inuence of kernel shape and size due to differences in rice varieties and the degree of milling could not be discerned in the development of the composite relationships between HRY and CDR. The separation of milled rice samples by the laboratory grader often resulted in overlapping head and broken rice fractions. Therefore, the HRY obtained from the laboratory grader was compared with the HRY estimation based on the measurement of projected area of kernels as shown in Fig. 9. These results conrmed the discrepancies encountered in the determination of HRY by the laboratory grader in comparison with manual inspection of kernels by image analysis. These differences in HRY were possibly due to the imprecise separation of the whole and broken kernels by the laboratory grader than the more accurate vision-based measurements. The HRY determination by the laboratory grader was inuenced by its operating settings such as the size of indentation in the rotating cylinder and the

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Fig. 3. Head rice yield as a function of characteristic dimension ratio based on kernel length.

inclination angle of the receiving trough. In this study, the operating conditions of the grader were identical for all rice varieties. The manual inspection of head and broken fractions separated by the grader conrmed the presence of rice kernels belonging to the other group. Also, the proportion of the overlap between the head and broken fractions depended upon the changes in the dimensional characteristics of the rice kernels during the milling operation and the differences in rice varieties. Therefore, the relationships between HRY determined by the grader and image analysis in Fig. 9 tended to exhibit characteristic differences among rice varieties.

Fig. 4. Head rice yield as a function of characteristic dimension ratio based on kernel perimeter.

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Fig. 5. Head rice yield as a function of characteristic dimension ratio based on kernel projected area.

These results further implied that the HRYs estimated by image analysis and the laboratory grader were indeed related, and could be used for monitoring the milling operation of different rice varieties.

4.2. Estimation of milled rice whiteness

A plot of gray level distribution in the image (252 252 pixels) of a milled rice sample is presented in Fig. 10. The values of gray level varied over a range from 70 to 190, depending upon the degree of milling and rice variety. The MGL increased with the degree of milling of rice samples. However, its range for different rice varieties when milled for same duration was different. The relationship between the whiteness of the milled rice samples determined by the commercial meter and MGL

Table 2 Results of regression analysis for estimating HRY from the dimensional characteristics of kernel images (Eq. (1)) Characteristic dimension Regression parametersa a Length (mm) Perimeter (mm) Projected area (mm2)
a b

Standard error

R2

RMSEb (% HRY)

b 0.85 0.79 0.93

|a 0.09 0.12 0.06

|b 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.994 0.992 0.994 1.2 1.3 1.1

1.97 2.71 1.41

Corresponding to condence interval of 95%. RMSE (% HRY)=

(HRYactHRYest)2/N.

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Fig. 6. Comparison of actual and estimated HRY based on kernel length.

is shown in Fig. 11. A linear relationship existed between the whiteness meter reading and MGL for 51 samples of ten Thai rice varieties as follows: WR = 0.606(MGL) 60.5 (R 2 = 0.991) (2)

where WR is the whiteness reading from the commercial meter in arbitrary units, and MGL is the mean gray level for gray value ranging from 0 to 255. A comparison of the two methods used for estimating the whiteness of milled rice samples is presented in Fig. 12. These results showed that the estimated values of milled rice whiteness based on Eq. (2) in terms of MGL were close to the

Fig. 7. Comparison of actual and estimated HRY based on kernel perimeter.

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Fig. 8. Comparison of actual and estimated HRY based on kernel projected area.

measurements by whiteness meter as indicated by the slope of regression line equal to 0.998 and R 2 value of 0.973 for 50 samples.

4.3. Discussion
The proposed technique for estimating milled rice whiteness can be implemented in a straightforward manner. Recently an electronic milling degree control system has been introduced in the Satake vertical abrasive whitener (model VTA10AB) to monitor the whiteness of milled rice continuously and automatically adjust the position of a counterweight to control the discharge and in turn the pressure inside the milling chamber (http://www.Satake-usa.com/abrasive.htm). However, the estimation of HRY in a milled rice sample from kernel images will require the

Fig. 9. Relationship between HRY determined by the laboratory grader and image analysis.

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Fig. 10. The gray level distribution in an image of a milled rice sample.

positioning of the individual kernels without touching each other prior to extracting their dimensional features. At present, no information is commercially available for monitoring the amount of head rice kernels in milled rice. However, a SPY grain grader, recently introduced by Maztech MicroVision Ltd., Canada makes use of the physical features of grains and surface discoloration (http://www.maztech.com/ spy.htm). Individual grains approximately ranging from 500 to 900 are picked by SPY picker and placed on a vacuum-assisted sample holder for extracting their physical features such as the distribution of kernel sizes by imaging. It seems likely that similar procedures could be adopted for the inspection of milled rice quality, based on the techniques described in this paper. The developments of such low-cost machine vision-based techniques that either enhance or replace currently used manual methods may pave the way for rapid assessment, and thus better control of rice milling operations in a conventional setting.

Fig. 11. Relationship between whiteness meter reading and mean gray level of milled rice samples.

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Fig. 12. Comparison of actual and estimated whiteness meter readings for milled rice samples.

5. Conclusions Results of this study show that HRY and whiteness of milled rice could be estimated from two-dimensional images of the milled rice kernels in their natural rest position. The HRY showed a distinct power-law relationship with the characteristic dimension ratio dened in terms of length, perimeter and projected area of head and broken rice kernels. However, the estimation of HRY from CDR based on kernel projected area yielded slightly better results with the lowest RMSE of 1.1% as compared to CDR based on kernel length or perimeter. The degree of milling was directly related to the MGL estimated from the gray level distribution in milled rice kernels images expressed in arbitrary whiteness units as measured by a commercial whiteness meter. The developed empirical relationships for estimating HRY and milled rice whiteness could be used for regular monitoring and better control of rice milling operations.

Acknowledgements The nancial support and laboratory facilities provided by the School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, are gratefully acknowledged.

References
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Conway, J.A., Sidik, M., Halid, H., 1991. Quality/value relationships in milled rice stored in conventional warehouses in Indonesia. In: Naewbanij, O.J., Manilay, A.A. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fourteenth ASEAN Seminar on Grain Postharvest Technology, Manila, Philippines, 5 8 November, pp. 5582. Fant, E., Casady, W., Goh, D., Siebenmorgen, T., 1994. Grey-scale intensity as a potential for degree of rice milling. J. Agric. Eng. Res. 58 (2), 89 97. Liu, W., Tao, Y., Siebenmorgen, T.J., Chen, H., 1998. Digital image analysis method for rapid measurement of degree of milling of rice. Cereal Chem. 75 (3), 380 385. Yadav, B.K., Jindal, V.K., 1998. Monitoring milled rice characteristics by image analysis. In: Salokhe, V.M., Jianxia, Z. (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Agricultural Engineering Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 710 December, pp. 963 971.