METHOD OF EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF FRUIT AND APPARATUS FOR CARRYING OUT THE METHOD Russian patent published in 1994 - IPC

FIELD: agricultural engineering. SUBSTANCE: method involves lighting fruit and analyzing reflected light beams. Fruit is exposed to coherent linear-polarized light, after which an interference pattern is formed, and maximum J_max and minimum J_min values of pattern intensity are measured. The quality of fruit is evaluated by comparing the value J_max,J_min and correlation function γ = (J_max-J_min)/(J_max +J_min) with corresponding values for flawless surface of the fruit. Apparatus for carrying out the method has a source of coherent linear-polarized radiation, units for forming incident and reflected flows, photoreceiving module with feature separator, Fourier filter with confining diaphragm for the incident flow, and projection lens with polarized interferometer for forming reflected flow and measuring its correlation function. EFFECT: enhanced efficiency of the method and apparatus. 3 cl, 3 dwg, 1 tbl