Researchers from Thailand’s the King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi created an Android app using AI – Coffee Roast Intelligence, which determines coffee’s roast level.
As the flavor of coffee is dependent on the extent of roasting of the beans, it is crucial to determine the degree of roasting. Coffee Roast Intelligence displays the roast level and returns the roasting percentage for class prediction.
The app analyzes image inputs of coffee beans via the CNN model, compares them with images from an image database, and then deciphers which of the beans belong to unroasted, light, medium, and dark roasted. For each of the four categories, the researchers used 1,200 photos from coffees roasted at JJ Mall Jatujak to create their image database. They used a Laos Typica Bolaven for the light roast, a Doi Chaang for the medium roast, and a Brazil Cerrado for the dark roast.
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Although preliminary results are encouraging, experts point out that the software is not yet able to take into account many origins, which “may alter the color.” It does not account for the variation in bean density, roast duration, age, temperature, elevation, and many other factors.
Another possible problem is that the app only determines the roast level based on the coffee bean’s exterior color. However, uneven growth and blistering during the roasting process could result in the exterior becoming more roasted than the interior, resulting in inaccurate results.
Nevertheless, the developers are optimistic that they can overcome these gaps as the dataset is growing since. For now, the app offers many benefits, especially for roasters. It could be a game-changer to rapidly take a snapshot of the coffee as it is roasting to identify the roast level.
