A compact multispectral imaging system for online poultry contaminant inspection

Authors: Kise, Michio; Park, Bosoon; Lawrence, Kurt; Windham, William

Submitted to: Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International (ASABE)
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2007
Publication Date: 6/17/2007
Citation: Kise, M., Park, B., Lawrence, K.C., Windham, W.R. 2007. A compact multispectral imaging system for online poultry contaminant inspection. Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International (ASABE). 50(4):1427-1432.

Interpretive Summary: The final goal of this research is to design and fabricate a compact, cost effective multispectral instrument for real-time contaminant detection at poultry processing plants. Food safety in the poultry industry is ongoing problem. Several deaths occur each year from public consumption of contaminated poultry and/or meat. Potential contamination can occur when feces or ingesta is deposited on the surface of the carcass. To prevent occurring contamination, the federal agency lunched zero-tolerance policy that requires that no poultry carcass can have visible fecal contamination prior to entering the ice-water chiller tank. This regulation, which is part of the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, was designed to prevent bacterial cross-contamination among carcasses in the chiller tanks. With the implementation of HACCP, industry is mandated to establish science-based process controls, and to establish performance standards for these controls.

Technical Abstract: The prototype system developed in this research was a dual-band spectral imaging system that acquired two different spectral images simultaneously. It was a two-port imaging system that consisted of two identical monochrome cameras, optical system and two interchangeable optical filters. A spectral reflectance from an object was collimated by lenses and split identically in two directions by a beamsplitter, and then each light was focused on the sensor by lenses through an optical filter. Two optical filters, that determined the spectral characteristic of the imaging system, could be interchanged without complicated manufacturing process. To create an accurately registered two-band image, an image calibration algorithm that corrected lens distortions and lens-sensor geometric misalignments were developed. The prototype imaging system and the image calibration algorithm were tested to evaluate the registration accuracy of the two-band image. The test showed that the imaging system could provide a two-band image of 3D object with less than 1.57 pixels registration error. The prototype system was also tested with a poultry carcass and the preliminary results showed that it could effectively detect feces and ingesta on the surface of poultry carcass.