Smart grape: AI project to determine grape quality and ripeness could help in climate change battle

A German research institute has launched a project using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine grape quality and ripeness that it says could also eventually be used in the battle against climate change. The Smart Grape project by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV is using infrared spectroscopy and AI to analysise grapes, and work out if they are . Infrared spectroscopy is a non-destructive optical technique which uses infrared radiation to provide information about the chemical composition of a particular sample. The institure says that this makes it an idea medium to use to work out if the grapes meet the required parameters for a great wine. It is also using mid-infrared wavelenghts (of between 2500 and 50,000 nm to characterize the quality of grapes, rather than the near-infrared wavelengths ( between 780 and 2500 nm) that are more commonly used. This is likely to provide large amounts of information, it said.