Development of a low-cost color sensor for biomedical applications

Abstract The present study proposes the development of a low-cost and user-friendly color sensor. The device was based on hardware-software integration to detect the color of the objects. The sensor used red, green, and blue (RGB) light emitting diodes as the light sources, which were used to sequentially illuminate the test objects. The reflected light from the test objects was detected by a light dependent resistor, interfaced with the analog input terminal of an Arduino UNO microcontroller. The analog voltage values were digitized and serially transmitted to a graphical user interface (GUI), designed in MATLAB. The digitized voltage values were used to obtain the color information of the test objects (i.e., RGB values) through linear mapping and contrast stretching algorithms. The RGB model was converted into CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) and HSI (hue, saturation, intensity) models using mathematical operations. The GUI was used to control the microcontroller and display the different color model values and the perceived color of the test object in the display panel. The proposed color sensor can be highly useful for the food and medical industries.