Wheat Seed Phenotype Detection Device and Its Application

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper 'Wheat seed phenotype detection device and its application’ provides an interesting study on a set of detection devices and methods for the rapid acquisition of the phenotypic characteristics of wheat seeds and thousand-grain weight prediction. I don't have any major revisions to the paper, so my recommendation was 'Accept after minor revision'.

 

Additional comments

1) The title of Figure 2 could be improved: Figure 2. Software platform architecture (a) and interface (b). Leave only the letters a and b identifying the figures (Line 134).

2) Use 12.4 × 9.3 cm and not 12.4 cm × 9.3 cm. Use 3264 × 2448 pixels and not 3264 pixels × 2448 pixels (Lines 146 and 147). Make corrections similar to this throughout the text.

3) Review the need from Figure 6 (line 218) and Table 2 (line 241).

4) Make tab corrections and numbering insertion (lines 228 and 229; lines 237 to 240).

5) Replace Figure 7 with Figure 9 (lines 377 and 382).

Author Response

Please check my attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

- The paper describes a method to automatically obtain wheat seed phenotype information, and the associated apparatus that was developed;

- The methodology and analysis are consistent;

- There are however a few issues that I believe should be properly addressed: 

. detailed  proofread of the manuscript is highly required (a few simple examples: the first sentence of the Abstract is rather long, repeating "phenotypic", "phenotype"  and " wheat seed"; Table 1-2 in line 122; "prediction" appears repeated  in line 350);

. Figures should be centred  (maybe later at an editing stage);

. Concerning  illumination: i) the location of the LEDs is not specified in Fig 1; ii) no information is provided about the characteristics of the light used (are these RGB LEDs? Their reference is not enough to find detailed information, and besides, I guess that finding it should not be a reader's task; Even if they are RGB, what is the color temperature?);

. Tables 1 and 2 should be part of section 2.2.2, where they are first mentioned;

. the text in section  2.2.4 does not seem to closely follow the diagram in  Figure 3, so the suggestion is find a better match;

. the camera's field of view is quoted to be a rectangle of 12.4cm x 9.3 cm (line 146); is it exactly the same (down to the mm level!) as the plate's dimensions (line116) ?

. the sampling plate is show to have a thickness of 2mm (Fig 4); is that the case when there are 3mm deep cavities in it?

. what is the image bit-depth? 16-bit? It is suggested to clarify it in section section 2.3 or 2.4;

. section 2.5 should definitely be re-written, adequately structuring the rationale, equations and quantities;

. reference 30 should be checked , as it does not seem to be " Vasilis et al.";

. it is mentioned in line 232 that " for Bainong 207, the average 232 error of the 3 mm hole plate detection is the smallest", but from the it seems to be the 2 mm hole plate;

. in line 233 it is quoted that "The errors of the 2 mm hole plate detection is not much different from that of the 1 mm hole plate detection", but the values can be either 2 times greater or a fraction of 0.24.... it  should be clarified;

. the analysis from lines 252 to 300 can certainly be made more compact, as mostly details can be observed in the results previously shown; the same for section 3.5 (discussion);

. how were the values 0.74 and 0.643 obtained from Fig. 8? (line 309);

. In terms of performance, the R2 indicates a limited accuracy; can ou provide some figures for the gap between real vs predicted values (maximum and median) ?

. the paper would benefit with  a benchmark of results obtained with other methods (where possible);

- the Conclusion section (4) seems to focus on repeating the results obtained; I suggest not to follow this path but rather to provide a "macro" view of the method and possible improvements;

. also, the Conclusion section is presented in the form of a numbered list, what I do not consider appropriate, but I will leave for the Editor the final word about it.

Author Response

Please check my attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx