Application of Hyperspectral Imaging for Watermelon Seed Classification Using Deep Learning and Scoring Mechanism

Watermelon seeds are a significant source of nutrition in the diet. To assess the potential of near-infrared hyperspectral imaging technology for swift and nondestructive identification of watermelon seed varieties, near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) technology was used. The Savitzky–Golay (SG) smoothing algorithm and standard normal variable (SNV) algorithm were combined to preprocess the extracted spectral data. The successive projections algorithm (SPA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of the spectral data. Subsequently, three deep learning models (LeNet, GoogLeNet, and ResNet) were used to classify 10 common watermelon seeds. SPA was used to reduce the dimensionality of hyperspectral data. In terms of full band, the ResNet model achieved a classification accuracy of 86.77% on the test set. By using characteristic bands, the GoogLeNet model achieved a classification accuracy of 83.85% on the test set. The ensemble fusion model based on a scoring mechanism achieved accuracy rates of 99.56%, 90.88%, and 87.97% on the training, validation, and test sets, respectively. The results indicated that the ensemble fusion model based on a scoring mechanism can enhance accuracy. Combining deep learning with NIR-HSI can effectively distinguish different varieties of watermelon seeds.