Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Specific signal processing circuitry
Patent
1988-07-06
1990-03-13
Britton, Howard W.
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Specific signal processing circuitry
73105, 356237, 356445, 426231, G01N 2188, G01N 3312
Patent
active
049087037
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention concerns a method of detecting meat texture, i.e. the firmness and coherence of the meat. Today, cooking of food products takes place automatically to a great extent, so that meat with a loose texture can be torn to pieces and thus cannot any more be accepted as a first-class product.
The object of the invention is to provide a method by means of which the texture may be detected automatically and without contact while the meat, e.g. a fillet of fish, is advanced on a conveyor.
This is obtained by performing the method as stated in the characterizing portion of claim 1, it having been found that with correct setting of the said acute angles with respect to the size and the type of the cracks in the meat which must be expected in the measurement, a surprisingly reliable measure of the extent of such cracks transversely to said illumination plane may be achieved.
In connection with detection of quite different phenomena, such as microscopic cracks or measuring of outer contours, it is known to illuminate the object and to record the image information, see e.g. DE OS Nos. 2 843 257 and 3 413 027. This prior art is relatively sophisticated, using i.a. special wavelengths for the light, and in relation to this the invention consists in realizing that the opposite, viz. simplification of the art, lends itself particularly well precisely for detection of meat texture.
More particular, the relatively deep cracks in meat having a poor texture involves good contrast formation, in particular when the cracks extend predominantly transversely to a plane thorugh the sources of light.
When measuring the texture of fish meat, which is a primary object of the invention, it should be noted that cracks in the longitudinal direction of a fillet of fish, i.e. substantially in parallel with the longitudinal fibres, are not indicative of a loose texture, whereas cracks transversely to the longitudinal fibres directly indicate a loose texture and a poor meat quality. Accordingly, for measuring the texture of fish meat, the method is advantageously performed as stated in claim 2.
Thus, the invention is based on the finding that the above-mentioned illumination and image recording may be utilized as an expression of the texture of the meat, but the surprisingly good results are also due to a special utilization of the video information processing, known per se, for precisely this object. When the method is performed as stated in claim 3, the method may thus be improved additionally by using electronic contrast intensification, e.g. of the type disclosed in the book "From image to surfaces" by William Erik Leifur Grimson, M.I.T. 1981, p. 16-100.
The utilization of the digetal technique in connection with the invention also entails that the invention is preferably performed as stated in claim 4. The positional information thus provided is then transferred to e.g. a robot controlled water jet cutting apparatus which automatically cuts away the parts of the fillet where the meat is loose and incoherent.
The invention will be explained more fully by the following description of an embodiment with reference to the drawing, in which
FIG. 1 schematically shows a fillet of fish having a satisfactory texture,
FIG. 2 shows a section through the fillet from FIG. 1 and schematically shows an embodiment of illumination directions and recording direction for image information,
FIG. 3 schematically shows a fillet of fish having a dissatisfactory texture,
FIG. 4 is a section through FIG. 3 corresponding to FIG. 2, and
FIG. 5 in principle shows an apparatus for performing the method of the invention.
In FIG. 1, the numeral 1 represents the contour of a fillet of fish having in the longitudinal direction some grooves 2, 3 in the meat substantially in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the fillet.
In FIG. 2, the fillet is shown resting on a base 4, and arrows 5, 6 indicate illumination directions for recording of image information by means of a video camera shown schematically at 7. Seen in the longitudinal direction of the fill
REFERENCES:
patent: 3851074 (1974-11-01), Gillespi
patent: 3877818 (1975-04-01), Button
patent: 4226540 (1980-10-01), Barten
patent: 4326808 (1982-04-01), Pryor
patent: 4413279 (1983-11-01), Gorl
patent: 4439037 (1984-03-01), Northeved
Search Report PCT/DK87/00139.
Haagensen Peter
Jensen Svend A.
Britton Howard W.
Lumetech A/S
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