Ultra-portable, wireless smartphone spectrometer for rapid, non-destructive testing of fruit ripeness
Author(s)
Wahi, Akshat; Kothari, Ishan; Das, Anshuman Jyothi; Raskar, Ramesh
DownloadUltra-portable.pdf (1014.Kb)
PUBLISHER_CC
Publisher with Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We demonstrate a smartphone based spectrometer design that is standalone and supported on a wireless platform. The device is inherently low-cost and the power consumption is minimal making it portable to carry out a range of studies in the field. All essential components of the device like the light source, spectrometer, filters, microcontroller and wireless circuits have been assembled in a housing of dimensions 88 mm × 37 mm × 22 mm and the entire device weighs 48 g. The resolution of the spectrometer is 15 nm, delivering accurate and repeatable measurements. The device has a dedicated app interface on the smartphone to communicate, receive, plot and analyze spectral data. The performance of the smartphone spectrometer is comparable to existing bench-top spectrometers in terms of stability and wavelength resolution. Validations of the device were carried out by demonstrating non-destructive ripeness testing in fruit samples. Ultra-Violet (UV) fluorescence from Chlorophyll present in the skin was measured across various apple varieties during the ripening process and correlated with destructive firmness tests. A satisfactory agreement was observed between ripeness and fluorescence signals. This demonstration is a step towards possible consumer, bio-sensing and diagnostic applications that can be carried out in a rapid manner.
Date issued
2016-09Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory; Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Das, Anshuman J., Akshat Wahi, Ishan Kothari, and Ramesh Raskar. “Ultra-Portable, Wireless Smartphone Spectrometer for Rapid, Non-Destructive Testing of Fruit Ripeness.” Scientific Reports 6 (September 8, 2016): 32504. © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2045-2322