An Adaptive Partial Least-Squares Regression Approach for Classifying Chicken Egg Fertility by Hyperspectral Imaging

Partial least-squares (PLS) regression is a well known chemometric method used for predictive modelling, especially in the presence of many variables. Although PLS was not initially developed as a technique for classification tasks, scientists have reportedly used this approach successfully for discrimination purposes. Whereas some non-supervised learning approaches, including, but not limited to, PCA and k-means clustering, do well in identifying/understanding grouping and clustering patterns in multidimensional data, they are limited when the end target is discrimination, making PLS a preferable alternative. Hyperspectral imaging data on a total of 672 fertilized chicken eggs, consisting of 336 white eggs and 336 brown eggs, were used in this study. Hyperspectral images in the NIR region of the 900–1700 nm wavelength range were captured prior to incubation on day 0 and on days 1–4 after incubation. Eggs were candled on incubation day 5 and broken out on day 10 to confirm fertility. While a total number of 312 and 314 eggs were found to be fertile in the brown and white egg batches, respectively, the total number of non-fertile eggs in the same set of batches was 23 and 21, respectively. Spectral information was extracted from a segmented region of interest (ROI) of each hyperspectral image and spectral transmission characteristics were obtained by averaging the spectral information. A moving-thresholding technique was implemented for discrimination based on PLS regression results on the calibration set. With true positive rates (TPRs) of up to 100% obtained at selected threshold values of between 0.50 and 0.85 and on different days of incubation, the results indicate that the proposed PLS technique can accurately discriminate between fertile and non-fertile eggs. The adaptive PLS approach was, thereby, presented as suitable for handling hyperspectral imaging-based chicken egg fertility data.