An Investigation Into the Use of a Low-Cost
NIR Intergrated Circuit Spectrometer to
Measure Chlorophyll Content Index
1 1 1 1 2
Nguyen Minh Trang , Tran Khac Duy , Tran Thi Ngoc Huyen , Luong Vinh Quoc Danh , Anh Dinh
1
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Cantho University, Can Tho, Vietnam
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Abstract— Crop yield is directly affected by the plant absorbance and transmittance, by the leaf, of red radiation,
macronutrients, mainly Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) status. which CL absorbs, and near infra-red (NIR) radiation, which
Growers must determine when to apply N fertilizer as the CL transmits [5,6]. Higher value of CM readings are resulted
nitrogen deficiency leads to lower yield and economic lost. from the increment in absorbance of red radiation by the
Chlorophyll meter has been used for years to find the correlation
chlorophyll. Transmittance-based meters are most common in
between the leaf chlorophyll content and the plant nitrogen
status, hence the demand of N in the field during growing cycle. commercial CM and one of them is the SPAD-502 meter
In general, chlorophyll meters are expensive even these handheld (Konica Minolta, Japan). Some other CMs are based on
devices are built for ease of use. This work investigates the fluorescent principle. Other characteristics of CMs are the
feasibility of the development of a very simple sensor device wavelengths they use (Table I) and the calibration equations
which uses extremely low-cost, off-the-shelf optical components the meters use to convert electrical signals into measurement
to measure chlorophyll content in the leaf. The heart of the device units.
is the AS7263 6-Channel Near-Infrared Spectral ID device made The red radiation absorption of chlorophylls a and b is
by AMS. The sensor prototype was built and tested. Preliminary approximately at 650 nm as shown in Fig. 1. As seen, the high
results show a promising device which is very low cost, simple,
absorption rate of both chlorophyll a and b is in the 2 regions
low maintenance, and easy to use in the field to support rice
growers to measure and monitor CCI and determine the need for of the visible spectrum, i.e., the blue color and the red color.
nitrogen in the growing cycle. The authors in [3] have concluded that for leaf CL estimation,
the Chlorophyll Content Index measured with the MC-100
Keywords—chlorophyll content index meter, near-infrared meter was the most effective of the four sensors examined
spectrometer, low-cost sensor because it had the most accurately estimated leaf CL content
and it had no saturation response at higher leaf CL content.
I. INTRODUCTION
The capacity of measuring high leaf CL contents without a
Chlorophyll (CL) was first isolated and named in 1817 by saturation response is an important consideration for the
Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Pierre Joseph Pelletier. practical use of CMs. In general, CMs are expensive even they
Chlorophyll is a green pigment, present in all green plants. are built portable and easy to use. Using these types of meters
Seen through a microscope, chlorophyll is concentrated within can facilitate on-the-spot accurate N determinations.
organisms in structures called chloroplasts. The function of the
reaction center of chlorophyll is to absorb light energy and
transfer to other parts of the photosystem [1]. CL in the leaf is
strongly related to the Nitrogen (N) status of the plants. It has
been known that monitoring N status of the crop is equivalent
to the crop N management. Well nitrogen management, is not
only economically benefits to the growers, but also good for
the environment and the soils. Measuring and monitoring the
chlorophyll in the leaves is very important to the growers as
they can schedule fertilizer in the most efficiently way in the
growing cycle [2,3,4]. By measuring the absorption of light in
the red and far red regions, it is possible to estimate the
concentration of chlorophyll within a leaf.
Scientists and growers use chlorophyll meters (CM) to
measure CL in the leaf. Most CMs determine relative leaf CL
content, called chlorophyll content index (CCI), by measuring
ARDA International Conference Singapore 47 ISBN: 9788192958048
