## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Image Texture and Color Assessment of the Outer Surfaces of Cucumber Peels during Storage  
The surface appearance of fruits and vegetables is one of the most important factors in consumer acceptance of these products. Digital image processing is a non-destructive morphometric technology that employs appropriate algorithms to highlight image texture features, thereby enabling key conclusions to be drawn regarding the classification, shelf life, and quality prediction of fruits and vegetables during storage [11; 12; 17]. Consequently, image analysis was utilized to extract data from digital images of the outer surfaces of cucumber peels, with the objective of evaluating the quality of the cucumbers in relation to the progression of their maturation during storage. For this purpose, machine learning techniques were employed for the analysis of the computed features derived from the colored and grayscale images of the outer surfaces of cucumber peels over the course of 28 days of storage. Figure 2 illustrates the progressive alterations in the appearance of cucumber peels throughout the 28-day storage period, as determined through image analysis. The color parameters L\({}^{*}\) (lightness), a* (redness-greenness), b* (yellowness-blueness), and h (hue angle) were determined using the colored images of the outer surfaces of cucumber peels and the chromatometer's results, and they are presented in Table 1. The results demonstrated a significant (\(p\) < 0.05) increase in the L\({}^{*}\) and b* parameters during the storage period, while the a* and h parameters exhibited a statistically significant (\(p\) < 0.05)decrease. In particular, the a* values of the outer surfaces of cucumber peels reached a plateau at day 22, with no significant fluctuations until day 28. These findings suggest that during the storage period, the cucumber peel's color became brighter, with an increase in greenness and yellowness, a shift toward yellow hues, and a gradual conversion from green to yellower green [18]. In accordance with the aforementioned results, [PERSON] et al. [19] have proposed that these color changes are ascribed to the enzymatic conversion of chlorophyll to yellow-green colored pheophytin during post-harvest storage. Furthermore, [PERSON] et al. [20] have reported that chlorophyll is gradually decomposed during the ripening of cucumbers, resulting in a decrease in the green hue and the dominance of the yellow hues attributed to carotenoids. Figure 3 depicts the diversity in the most significant textural features extracted from grayscale images of the outer surfaces of cucumber peels throughout the 28-day storage period. Therefore, the textural features, mean (the average intensity of all image pixels), standard deviation (difference from the mean value), dissimilarity (textural image alteration), short-run emphasis (existence of short, successive runs of pixels with comparable intensities inside a picture), and run length non-uniformity (variations in the lengths of runs of similar intensity values within an image) significantly (\(p<0.05\)) increased during the storage period. It is noteworthy that the dissimilarity values indicate that the most significant changes were achieved by the 13 th day of storage. On the other hand, gray-level non-uniformity (variability in the distribution of gray levels in the image) and long-run emphasis (longer consecutive runs of pixels with similar intensity values in an image) both decreased (\(p<0.05\)), with an increase in storage time. The results revealed a loss of texture structural order and an increase in the image dissimilarity of cucumber peels, which became less constant and more fractured over the course of the storage period. The above results are considered particularly significant as they align with the findings of numerous researchers [12; 13; 21; 22; 23; 24] who have established a correlation between alterations in the