PhilRice develops software for grain quality evaluation
October 02, 2016
By Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 2, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has developed an automated classification software to measure chalkiness and identify immature grains in milled rice.
The software dubbed PhilRice Milled Grain Classifier (PMGC) can speed up the conventional classification process.
In the conventional process, the grain quality evaluation team of the Rice Varietal Improvement Group (RVIG) manually evaluates the physical attributes of 600-800 promising lines every year.
PhilRice evaluates two sets of 30 grams milled rice of candidate elite line using their naked eye, a process that is tedious and time consuming for researchers.
By using the new software, a classifier can evaluate more or less 115 grams of milled rice in an hour compared to the conventional way where a classifier can only assess 30 grams of milled rice in an hour and 30 minutes.
The software provides quick overview of analyzed milled grain samples that can be enlarged for verification.
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It also validates translucent, chalky, and immature grains and gives grain identification number and colour and can determine grain length and shape, and identify broken and brewer grains.
The PMGC was developed by establishing an algorithm using special programming language for image acquisition, processing, and integration of artificial neural network.
The developed algorithm includes the development of graphical user interface to control the hardware and execute the image analysis software. The establishment of models or training samples was the key for increasing the predicting value of the software, PhilRice said.
It also consists of image acquisition of different degree of chalky grains and various samples of immature grains that were used for model development with the help of neuro-shell program.
