Portable Multispectral System Based on Color Detector for the Analysis of Homogeneous Surfaces

Abstract

In this work, a compact affordable and portable spectral imaging system is presented. The system is intended to be employed in general applications, such as material classification or determination of the concentration of chemical species together with colorimetric sensors. The imaging device is reduced to a small digital color detector with an active area of 3×2 mm2. This device provides a quantification of the incident emission in the form of four digital words corresponding to its averaged components blue, green, red, and near infrared. In this way, the size of the image is reduced to one pixel. The wavelength selection is carried out by means of a LED array disposed surrounding the color detector. The LEDs are selected to cover the wavelength range from 360 to 890 nm. A sequential measurement protocol is followed, and the generated data is transmitted to an external portable device via a Bluetooth link where a classification protocol is implemented in a custom-developed Android™ application. The presented system has been applied in three different scenarios involving material classification, meat freshness monitoring, and chemical analysis. The analysis of the data using principal components shows that it is possible to find a set of wavelengths where the classification of the samples is optimal.