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The overall objective of Phase II is to fill the gap between the fundamental research and practical R&D for an industrially viable automated system which will meet both FDA radiation protection and USDA food safety requirements. <P> Our tasks include: <OL> <LI> developing a full-scale image processing architecture to maximize system throughput to implement high-speed electronics and algorithms<LI>developing an essential automatic calibration system to ensure reliability and robustness of the imaging detection system with an expanded field view<LI>developing user-friendly interfaces for convenient and secure operation and control of the detection system.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Health-conscious Americans have increased their consumption of white meat. Boneless poultry now represents 48% of the USs annual 46.9 billion pounds of poultry products. With increasing consumer demand, poultry processors strive to improve quality, efficiency, product safety, and productivity. Processors are especially concerned about bone fragments and hazardous materials embedded in fillets which pose health risks to consumers. This project will lead to an industry-ready commercializable system technology for sensitive and accurate detection of bone fragments and hazardous materials on poultry de-boning lines. Our success will enhance the poultry industrys ability to deliver quality, safe, and cost-effective poultry products to American consumers.
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APPROACH: To fully develop an automated and industrially viable X-ray and laser imaging detection system technology for detecting bone fragments in poultry fillets on poultry de-boning lines, we will adopt the following R&D approach: 1) The hardware and software architecture of the imaging system will be optimized, with research emphasis on the three major components, i.e., parallel imaging acquisitions, high speed image processing, and targeted meat rejection. 2) Automatic calibration methods of a host of heterogeneous image sensors will be developed to reduce human interaction and increase the system reliability in poultry processing plants. 3) A poultry processor-friendly user interface is crucial for convenient and secure operation and maintenance of the system, as required and/or desired by the food industry. A well designed user-machine interface will be developed to connect the operator with the machine, and provide added convenience, productivity and reliability.