Sorting M&M's Candy

Using the reflectance mode of the MacroDIS instrument, spectra from each piece of candy in a bag of M&M's was determined, simultaneously, and then sorted by spectral similarity algorithms. A true color image is shown in the upper left window. [As everyone on Earth knows, M&M's now come in 6 colors: brown, red, orange, yellow, blue, and green.] Each row in the Contour Plot corresponds to the spectrum of each of the features (i.e., individual candies) located in the image. The absorbance values are color coded according to the colorbar at the bottom of the contour window. Low absorbance is black, high absorbance is white, and intermediate absorbances are encoded as a logical continuum of colors. The CyberDIS user interface of MacroDIS provides a convenient means to correlate features in the image with spectra. The computer's mouse can be used to point to any feature in the image or any row in the contour map with a real-time update of the spectrum in the lower left window. Moving the feature selection circle on the image causes the red bar in the Contour Plot to move to the correct row; conversely, moving the red bar causes the corresponding feature to be marked and its spectrum to be displayed in the plot window. A similarity sort has already been applied to the Contour Plot to illustrate the fact that CyberDIS sees six distinct types of features. A green M&M is highlighted.

Sorting

Spectral sorting of the features has led us to the obvious conclusion that there are, indeed, six different colors of M&M's. The set of four Contour Plots (shown below) demonstrates how CyberDIS can sort features by similarity. Panel A shows the original unsorted data for 101 randomly picked M&M's. Panel B shows the result of sorting the spectra according to maximum absorption. Panel C redisplays the Contour Plot in a full scale deflection mode. Panel D shows the final sort using the similarity algorithm. CyberDIS provides a variety of other menu driven sorting algorithms. From top to bottom, the six segments of the Contour Plot in Panel D correspond exactly to the six different colors found in the bag: green, a lot of brown, red, orange, yellow, and new blue.

The four panels in this figure show various stages of sorting M&M's into six color categories.

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