Comprehensive Characterization of Date Palm Fruit ‘Mejhoul’ (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Using Image Analysis and Quality Attribute Measurements
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript used image analysis and quality attribute measurements to character the date palm fruit ‘Mejhoul’. Some concerns with the manuscript as follows:
(1) L84-85, what is the type of the digital camera? what is the resolution of image acquired? And what is the light intensity? As these factors effected the measurements accuracy of some physicochemical parameters.
(2) L162, the Table 1 was not standard.
(3) In Conclusion section, some detailed results should be used for make a better conclusion.
(4) In Figure 1. Only ‘Mejhoul’ date fruit image segmentation was presented, but it did not present the corresponding original image, as a result, we cannot understand the reliability of the segmentation algorithm.
(5) L108, what is the detailed thresholds of various channel? Whether the thresholds of these settings are widely applicable.
(6) The discussion part should be more enriched.
Author Response
Responses to Reviewer 1:
This manuscript used image analysis and quality attribute measurements to character the date palm fruit ‘Mejhoul’. Some concerns with the manuscript as follows:
Comment 1. (1) L84-85, what is the type of the digital camera? what is the resolution of image acquired? And what is the light intensity? As these factors effected the measurements accuracy of some physicochemical parameters.
Response 1. Thank you very much for your careful reading of the manuscript and this comment. It has been corrected as follows:
“The images were obtained using a cell phone camera (Samsung Galaxy S10+, Samsung Group, Suwon, Republic of Korea) with Optical Zoom, f/1.9 aperture, optical image stabilization, and a flash as a light source. The distance of a cell phone camera from the date palm fruit samples was 300 mm. The imaging was carried out using a white background. Five images, with eighteen fruits in each one, were acquired. The images were characterized by the resolution (pixels) of 2200 x 3300.”
Comment 2. (2) L162, the Table 1 was not standard.
Response 2. Table 1 has been corrected.
Comment 3. (3) In Conclusion section, some detailed results should be used for make a better conclusion.
Response 3. It has been corrected as follows:
“This study is the first report on ‘Mejhoul’ date palm fruit using important image features with the highest discriminative power selected from such a large dataset. Thus, more than 1600 textures of ‘Mejhoul’ date images in different color channels L, a, b, R, G, B, X, Y, and Z, and also 40 geometric parameters including linear dimensions and shape factors, which is a great novelty for the characterization of the ‘Mejhoul’ variety, were determined. Using image analysis, among others, the values of texture parameters of fruit in the range of 4.23 for ZHMean to 145.88 for aHMean were determined, and the elliptical shape was confirmed by the elliptic shape factor (W1) of 1.000. In addition, the physicochemical parameters of this world’s date palm variety in Moroccan were elucidated.
The developed procedures and the obtained results, especially for ‘Mejhoul’ image analysis, can be useful in practice for several purposes related to post harvest treatment and for valorization issues. Further research will be focused on distinguishing ‘Mejhoul’ date fruit produced in several countries and also from other varieties, linking itinerary technique of this variety and its quality attributes, determining the date of harvest based on image features, determining changes in quality during storage and processing and predicting physicochemical parameters of fruit based on image features.”
Comment 4. (4) In Figure 1. Only ‘Mejhoul’ date fruit image segmentation was presented, but it did not present the corresponding original image, as a result, we cannot understand the reliability of the segmentation algorithm.
Response 4. Figure 1 has been changed into:
Figure 1. The original image of ‘Mejhoul’ date palm fruit (a) and image with overlaid regions of interest (ROIs) (b).
Figure 1a has been added.
Comment 5. (5) L108, what is the detailed thresholds of various channel? Whether the thresholds of these settings are widely applicable.
Response 5. It has been corrected as follows:
“The brightness threshold was applied for the image segmentation into the black background with a pixel brightness intensity of 0 and lighter date palm fruits characterized by a brightness intensity greater than 0.”
Comment 6. (6) The discussion part should be more enriched.
Response 6. It has been expanded as follows:
“The results of previous own studies confirmed the possibility of the estimation of chemical properties of fruit and grain based on image texture parameters [46,47]. Furthermore, the combination of image processing and machine learning can allow for the monitoring of fruit quality during storage [48,49] and the evaluation of plants grown under different conditions [50]. Literature data indicate great possibilities of using the results obtained with the use of image analysis and lead to setting new research directions.”
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In this work, the authors have presented a comprehensive characterization of date fruit of the ‘Mejhoul’ variety using image analysis and physicochemical measurements. Although the paper contains the necessary background analysis, method introduction, and experimental verification, the work still has some content needed to be improved. Some specific comments can be shown in the attached file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Responses to Reviewer 2:
In this work, the authors have presented a comprehensive characterization of date fruit of the ‘Mejhoul’ variety using image analysis and physicochemical measurements. Although the paper contains the necessary background analysis, method introduction, and experimental verification, the work still has some content needed to be improved. Some specific comments can be shown in the attached file.
Response Thank you very much for your careful reading of the manuscript. The manuscript has been improved according to all your comments.
Comment 1. The authors have stated in the text “this research aimed to use an innovative approach, based on objective non-destructive image analysis, for a more comprehensive characterization of date fruit of the ‘Mejhoul’ variety.” However, it can be found that many key steps such as image segmentation, image texture parameters, physicochemical measurements, and statistical analysis, were implemented according to existing literatures or using professional softwares. Therefore, I suggest for the authors strengthen the expression of innovation work in this paper except for the use of a large number of data and features.
Response 1. Thank you very much for this comment. It has been expanded as follows:
“Thus, this research aimed to use an innovative approach, based on objective non-destructive image analysis, for a more comprehensive characterization of date fruit of the ‘Mejhoul’ variety. The characterization of date fruit involved the determination of more than 1600 textures of images from different color channels R, G, B, L, a, b, X, Y, Z and 40 geometric parameters including linear dimensions and shape factors. Additionally, water content, water activity, color, and chemical properties were determined. Due to such a large number of features, this is the first extensive report on ‘Mejhoul’ date fruit variety that uses a novel approach based on image analysis for determining the quality attributes of this noble variety. The scope of the study exceeds the information on the ‘Mejhoul’ variety available in the literature. By applying a non-destructive, fast, inexpensive, and objective approach to the in-depth characterization of date palm fruit ‘Mejhoul’, the study makes a huge contribution to fruit quality monitoring. Simultaneous determination of the image features and the quality attribute determined by other methods provides the opportunity to develop models for estimating the physicochemical features of the fruit based on the image parameters, which will be a unique value for assessing the quality of the ‘Mejhoul’ variety.”
Comment 2. The authors have stated in the text “mean object specific area of 1402.60 mm” (line 171). Firstly, it seems that the unit should be mm2. Secondly, the value of 1402.60 is inconsistent with the value of Ft in Table 2. I suggest for the authors check these.
Response 2. It has been corrected as follows:
“The ‘Mejhoul’ fruit was characterized by a mean object specific area of 1402.63 mm2.”
Comment 3. The authors have stated in the text “the moving speed of the probe was 0,5mm/second” (line 135 to line 136). Is it 0.5mm/second?
Response 3. It has been corrected as follows:
“the moving speed of the probe was 0.5 mm/second.”
Comment 4. To present the segmentation result more clearly, I suggest for the authors supplement the original digital color images of ‘Mejhoul’ date fruits shown in Figure 1.
Response 4. Figure 1 has been changed according to your comment into:
Figure 1. The original image of ‘Mejhoul’ date palm fruit (a) and image with overlaid regions of interest (ROIs) (b).
Figure 1a has been added.
Comment 5. The authors have provided the values of the histogram’s mean (HMean) for different color channels. Why there are some negative values for BHMean in Figure 3(a)? Besides, some redundant black blotches are existing near the coordinate axis of RHMean. The authors should better improve the figure.
Response 5. Thank you very much for your comment. Figure 3(a) “Surface chart 3W of textures RHMean vs. GHMean vs. BHMean from the color space RGB” has been replaced,
Comment 6. Although the authors have provided the definitions of most geometric features, some definitions seem to be omitted. For example: a) Smax b) Smin Therefore, I suggest for the authors improve these.
Response 6. It has been corrected as follows:
“Smax - maximal diameter; Smin - minimal diameter”
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Those responses have addressed the reviewer's concerms. I agree to publish this paper.
Reviewer 2 Report
The comments are answered in a suitable manner to achieve the requirement for publishing.
