Using mobile phone as a ripeness sensor

In this paper, the possibility of using a mobile phone as a ripeness sensor is considered. The concept of differentiation based on changes in the dielectric constant of the product as it matures (increase in sugar content) is proposed. A scheme is considered in which one device plays the role of a base station and transmits a Wi-Fi signal at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, and another device uses a specially developed mobile application to analyze this signal and determine by its changes whether a fruit located in the near field of a telephone antenna is edible. The results of the distinctness of different types of products, as well as different degrees of ripeness (unripe/ripe) for one product (avocado) are presented. The sensitivity of the method is also evaluated based on comparison with laboratory measurements using high-quality patch antennas.