Theaflavins (TF) and thearubigins (TR) are the
important chemical compounds, which contribute to the colour
and brightness of tea liquor. Estimation of TF and TR in black
tea is generally done using a spectrophotometer. But, the
analysis technique undergoes rigorous time consuming effort for
sample preparation; also the operation of costly
spectrophotometer requires expert manpower. To overcome
above problems an electronic vision system (E-Vision system)
based on image processing has been developed, which is faster,
low cost, repeatable and can estimate the amount of Total
Colour (TC), Brightness (TB), Theaflavins (TF) and TF/TR
ratio for orthodox tea liquors. This paper describes the newly
developed E-Vision system, experimental methods using
orthodox black tea sample, data analysis algorithms and finally,
the performance of the E-Vision system as compared to the
results of traditional spectrophotometer. The data analysis is
done using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple
Linear Regression (MLR). A correlation has been established
between colour of tea liquor images and TC, TB, TR and TF/TR
ratio