Visual detection of the moisture content of tea leaves with hyperspectral imaging technology

Hitherto, the rapid and nondestructive determination of the moisture content of tea leaves is still an unresolved issue because the upward facing surfaces of tea leaves lying on a conveyor belt are randomly chosen by the collapse of the leaves onto their front side or back side. To study the above issue, hyperspectral images of both the front side and back side of tea leaves on a conveyor belt were captured in the lab to simulate a practical production environment, and LS-SVR models with Rv2 values of 0.951 and 0.918 for the front side and back side, respectively, were established based on their characteristic spectral bands. To ensure that the spectrum of each pixel can be correctly imported into its corresponding model, a logistic regression classifier with a correct classification rate of 100% was designed to identify the front side and back side of the leaves. Finally, a distribution map of the moisture content of the tea leaves was generated successfully according to the following steps: (1) Extracting the average spectrum of each leaf; (2) Identifying which side of the leaf the spectrum belongs to; (3) Importing the adjusted spectrum of each pixel into its corresponding regression model; and (4) Generating a distribution map of the moisture content. This research creatively provides a scheme for detecting the moisture content of tea leaves.