Hyperspectral band selection using Kullback-Leibler divergence for blueberry fruit detection

This paper explores the feasibility of using hyperspectral imagery for blueberry fruit detection. Some bands of hyperspectral images offer redundant information. A Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) based band selection method is used to select the most useful bands. Forty hyperspectral images of blueberry plants were taken from the field with 1-millimeter special resolution. The proposed KLD based band selection method took advantage of the high spatial resolution of the blueberry hyperspectral images. The performance of the selected bands was compared with an unsupervised band selection strategy. The selected bands may be used for developing a blueberry detection system with a multi-spectral camera, which is of much lower cost than a hyperspectral camera.