Monitoring of papaya fruit (carica papaya) maturity and survey of spatial coordinates associated to the bioactivity mapping, mechanical and chemical properties

• Grant number: 12/16128-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2012
• End date: October 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agricultural Engineering - Agricultural Machinery and Implements
• Principal Investigator: Inácio Maria Dal Fabbro
• Grantee: Larissa de Camargo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola (FEAGRI). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The literature is quite prolific in approaching optical techniques applied to various engineering fields, biology, and medicine, among others. These techniques have been generated from optical phenomena well known, such as reflection, refraction, absorption and light interference. The phenomenon called biospeckle can be described as a "bright boiling" where the slightest disruption in the arrangement of the light corpuscles scattering modifies the interference-generated patterns. This project proposes the attainment of the spatial coordinates (Xi, i = 1,2,3) generating subsidies for agricultural processing regarding the relationship between machines and plants as well as plant characterization and products. It was decided to obtain the spatial coordinates by means of optical techniques based on the Biospeckle phenomenon associated with the mapping bioactivity and Color. It will be monitored papaya fruit maturity, evaluating color, size, diameter, firmness, soluble solids, titratable acidity, and biological activity obtained by speckle. The chemical and physical characteristics of maturity will be compared with the optical effects of speckle. To obtain the data through speckle, the select image processing method was identified as the LASCA method. The plant body chosen to study was the papaya fruits 'Tainung' variety. That option is associated with its characteristics because it is produced on a large scale and consumed in Brazil. The expected results are the three-dimensional reconstruction of the fruit shape by laser profilometry, a correlation between the characteristics of maturity obtained by traditional methods, and those obtained by speckle.(AU)