Separating nut-shell pieces from hazelnuts and pistachio kernels using impact vibration analysis

In this article nut-shell pieces are separated from pistachio kernels and hazelnut kernels using impact vibration analysis. Vibration signals are recorded and analyzed in real-time. Mel-kepstral feature parameters and line spectral frequency values are extracted from the vibration signals. Feature parameters are classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) which was trained a priori using a manually classified data set. An average classification rate of 96.% and 98.3%was achieved with Antep-style Turkish pistachio nuts and hazelnuts. An important feature of the method is that it is easily trainable for other kinds of pistachio nuts and other nuts including walnuts.