New tech sizes 5,000-plus apples as trucks arrive at receiving

New Zealand-based fruit technology solution provider Hectre is finding industry acceptance with Spectre Top Down, a tool the company reports is capable of sizing more than 5,000 apples straight off the truck at receiving stations.

Seven packinghouse receiving sites in Washington have already picked up the technology, according to a news release.

The Spectre Top Down app uses computer vision and machine learning artificial intelligence to detect and size apples from the top layer of fruit bins on flatbed trucks, according to the release.

As trucks arrive at receiving, they pass under Hectre’s Spectre Top Down camera, and the app uses algorithms to detect pieces of fruit and size them, according to the release.

Size data is computed within seconds and is shareable with packhouse, sales and others via file export or application program interface.

Early answers

A lack of reliable early size data is a costly problem for the fruit industry, according to the release.

“Spectre Top Down is the fifth product in our Spectre range that we have brought to market in the past 18 months,” Matty Blomfield, CEO and co-founder of Hectre, said in the release. “Initially, we developed Spectre for apples, which provides apple growers and packers with the ability to size apples in seconds, just by taking a photo on a simple iPad. We then launched Spectre for Color to deliver early color grading for apples, followed by Spectre for Citrus and, recently, Spectre for Cherries.”

There are 54 tools and technologies sitting under the hood of Hectre’s Spectre app, the company said. More than 27 million pieces of fruit had been sized so far by Spectre, the release said. 

Blomfield said in the release that Spectre Top Down was built in response to demand from high-volume packhouses.

"With Hectre's Spectre Top Down app, we can capture size data on more than 5,000 apples from just one truck pass as it pulls into receiving,” Nicole Gordy, director of business analytics at Sage Fruit, said in the release. “That delivers a massive increase in our size and color sampling where reliable data is crucial.”

Gaining size and color data at the earliest point in the packing process allows Sage’s packinghouse and sales teams with information needed to optimize their operations, Gordy said in the release.