8th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology

Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) – Philippine Section
9-12 December 2015 Water Front Hotel, Cebu, Philippines

COLOR QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF

COCONUT SUGAR USING
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK (ANN)
Aaron AQUINO#1, Mary Grace Ann BAUTISTA#2, Argel BANDALA#3, Elmer DADIOS#4
Gokongwei College of Engineering
De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines
1
aaron_u_aquino@dlsu.edu.ph
2
mary_grace_cabungcal@dlsu.edu.ph
3
argel.bandala@dlsu.edu.ph
4
elmer.dadios@dlsu.edu.ph

Abstract – This paper presents a simple color recognition Table 1.

algorithm using digital image processing techniques and pattern Coconut Sugar Classification
recognition to eliminate the subjectiveness of manual inspection
of the quality of coconut sugar based on Philippine National Class Specification
Standard. The image processing was built using MATLAB Premium class Color: Light yellow to cream
functions through RGB acquisition. The Backpropagation (Superior quality) Water Activity, aw < 0.5
Artificial Neural Network was used in this project to enhance the Class I Color: Light brown to brown
accuracy and performance of image processing. The database of (Good quality) Water Activity, aw 0.5 – 0.7
the network involved 300 images and 70% of these were used for
This class includes coconut sap sugar
training the network, 15% for validation and 15% for testing.
which does not qualify for inclusion
Class II
Keywords – Color Quality Assessment, Coconut Sugar, RGB in the higher classes, but satisfy the
Extraction, Neural Network minimum requirements specified.

Current technologies in coconut sugar making pose many

I. INTRODUCTION
The Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Product
Standards drafted national standards for the quality of coconut
sugar in order to safeguard the industry. Certifications by the
Organic Certification Center of the Philippines (OCCP) are
issued for the products that meet the criteria set by this body.
Organic certification of products for commercial use is
intended to assure quality and prevent fraud. These
certifications serve a product assurance for the consumers and
approval for operation for organic producers. [1]
risks during the production process including chemical
contamination due to unsanitized containers and pans,
inconsistency of sugar color, and moisture caused by
excessive heat applied. These risks challenge the industry with
regards to the quality of coconut sugar as an export material.
An unacceptable quality is deemed to be unsafe to the
consumers. [4] In order to maintain the consistency of quality
of produced coconut sugar for export, the researchers
conceptualized the design of an automated system for grading
coconut sugar quality using computational algorithms, instead
of manual visual inspection.

There are three quality classifications for coconut sugar The study will introduce a more improved quality
set by the the Philippine National Standards Table 1 shows classification system for coconut sugar production compliant
these classes and their respective specifications. (PNS/BAFPS to Philippine National Standards, in comparison to subjective
76:2010) nature of quality assessment by visual examination. [4]

978-1-5090-0360-0/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

 8th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) – Philippine Section
Quality identification for coconut sugar may help increase its
marketability and further improve its attractiveness for export.
Furthermore, future research involving technologies for
manufacturing of coconut sugar can benefit in this study.
Integration of a color-based quality assessment system for the
output product may help future researchers further develop the
automation process for the manufacturing of coconut sugar,
from pre-processing of coconut sap to packaging of the final
product whose quality is properly identified.
II. ARCHITECTURE OF THE SYSTEM
Fig. 1 System Block Diagram
A. Collection of Data and Preprocessing
The proponents gathered 300 images from partner
agencies involving coconut sugar production such as the
Philippine Coconut Authority and United Coconut
Association in the Philippines. These images include the
quality classifications Superior, Good and Reject. In the
preprocessing stages, the images were resized in order to
reduce the color index of the images. Each image was
extracted by pixel into its red, green and blue color
component. These red, green and blue color components were
displayed in gray-scale index. Then, the RGB values obtained
Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
9-12 December 2015 Water Front Hotel, Cebu, Philippines
and classified quality served as the input and target output of
the network, respectively, and were normalized prior to
training. Normalization is performed by dividing each of the
data set by the largest value present in that set.
B. Training the Neural Network
The neural network served as the medium for identifying
the quality of the coconut sugar. The basic structure of the
neural network is a neuron, which involves mathematical
equations and processes.
The training will only stop after the neural network has
met the stopping criterions: (1) Maximum iteration is reached,
(2) Minimum gradient is reached, and (3) Maximum
validation checks (number of iterations in which error has
failed to decrease) is reached. If the neural network produced
satisfying results after the training, the network can be used
now for quality identification.
C. Testing, Quality Assessment and Classification
Testing the developed neural network will be conducted
using the nntool function in MATLAB. This function will
give the performance plot and regression plot of the test data
for analysis and validation of the network.
III. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The neural network was created in different
combinations, with 3 input nodes, one hidden layer with
varying number of hidden nodes for each training and output
one output node. Both the hidden and output layer neurons
were activated by binary sigmoid activation function.
The output is 1 if the sugar has superior quality, 2 if it has
good quality and 3 if it is a reject. 300 images were extracted
and divided into three sections. 70% of the images were used
for training, 15% for testing and the remaining 15% for
validation. Weights and biases were arbitrarily initialized and
the images are presented to the network one at a time. This
process is repeated until the training number is reached. Table
1 shows sample data used to train the Neural Network.
 8th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology
Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) – Philippine Section
9-12 December 2015 Water Front Hotel, Cebu, Philippines

IV. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

A. Presentation of Data

A total of 300 samples were gathered experimentally

using MATLAB. These data shows the classified quality and
extracted RGB components of each image. Samples of the
training data are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Table 3.
Sample Training Data and Results for MSE, Learning Time and Regression Coefficient
Backpropagation Artificial Neural Network of Varying Hidden Node Sizes

Normalized Normalized Extracted No. of Hidden MSE Learning Regression

Actual Classified RGB Components Nodes Time (s) Coefficient
Quality 9 0.008450 3 0.9107
R G B 12 0.006030 10 0.9398
0.33 0.94 0.78 0.60 15 0.004100 34 0.9639
0.33 0.81 0.72 0.42 18 0.002410 9 0.9752
0.33 0.86 0.80 0.52 21 0.003500 45 0.9697
0.67 0.75 0.52 0.35 24 0.002110 31 0.9801
0.33 0.91 0.72 0.39 30 0.001120 44 0.9895
0.67 0.77 0.58 0.39 36 0.000854 37 0.9920
0.67 0.63 0.47 0.32 45 0.000885 112 0.9906
0.67 0.80 0.58 0.31 50 0.000851 50 0.9904
0.67 0.61 0.35 0.15 60 0.000714 132 0.9921
1.00 0.36 0.18 0.08 70 0.000357 20 0.9968
1.00 0.35 0.20 0.11 80 0.000361 35 0.9968
0.67 0.52 0.32 0.15 90 0.000406 71 0.9968
0.67 0.65 0.38 0.15 100 0.000394 75 0.9967
0.67 0.64 0.35 0.04 120 0.002050 89 0.9809
1.00 0.34 0.20 0.09 140 0.000658 90 0.9936
160 0.001360 84 0.9875
B. Mean Square Error (MSE), Learning Time and
Regression Coefficient (R) 180 0.000313 70 0.9968
200 0.000389 249 0.9967
It is important to train the network with the appropriate
number of nodes in the hidden layer to satisfy the performance
requirements of the system. Hence, different network
Referring to these graphs, it is observed that the
structures are developed by changing the hidden node size.
lowest MSE is obtained from a hidden node size of 70. On the
other hand, fastest learning time is obtained at lower hidden
For each network constructed, the mean square error
node sizes. Also, it is seen that the regression coefficient
(MSE), learning time in seconds and the regression coefficient
acquired. the highest value at 70 hidden node size.
(R) are obtained after training. Table 3 shows the results. For
a more convenient interpretation, the results from Table 3 are
displayed on graphs for each hidden node size.
 8th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology
Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) – Philippine Section
9-12 December 2015 Water Front Hotel, Cebu, Philippines

hidden node size, while in the same fashion, the mean square
error decreases. It means that there is significant trade-off
between performance error and learning time of the network.
Furthermore, looking at figure (R), the regression coefficient
becomes closer to unity as hidden node size increases,
implying that the actual output – to – network output
relationship becomes increasingly linear.

V. CONCLUSION

In this study, a system for classifying the color quality of

coconut sugar based on its color was successfully developed.
The RGB components of each image obtained were obtained
using RGB color feature extraction in MATLAB.
Fig 2. Number of hidden nodes versus mean square error (MSE)
From the results of the training, it is observed that a
considerable trade-off between the mean square error and the
learning time exists and that the regression coefficient
becomes closer to unity with an increase of hidden node size.

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Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) – Philippine Section
9-12 December 2015 Water Front Hotel, Cebu, Philippines

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