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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #313234
Title: Preliminary thermal imaging of cotton impurities

Author
item Easson, Michael
item Montalvo Jr, Joseph
item von Hoven, Terri
item Condon, Brian
item Hardin Iv, Robert
item Byler, Richard

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/9/2015
Publication Date: 5/15/2015
Citation: Easson, M.W., Montalvo Jr, J.G., Von Hoven, T.M., Condon, B.D., Hardin Iv, R.G., Byler, R.K. 2015. Preliminary thermal imaging of cotton impurities. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. p. 68-77.

Interpretive Summary: Differences exist between the Advanced Fiber Information Systems (AFIS) seed coat nep count and the seed coat fragment count by visual inspection. Seed coat fragments are small pieces of seed coat tissue with or without attached fibers; seed coat neps are seed coat fragments with attached fibers that remain with the normal fibers in AFIS processing. A novel approach to understanding the discrepancies in seed coat counts is to focus on thermal properties by thermal imaging. Thermal imaging is an emerging technique for identifying and quantifying impurities in the food industry. Heat is applied to increase body surface temperatures above background. Thermal decay of surface temperature is detected by a thermal imaging camera that senses emitted radiation in the infrared range. Images produced show the impurities with different surface temperatures. Temperature-time series curves of each impurity spot in the thermograph give the information to build discriminating algorithms and to compare selectivity for one impurity type over another. Preliminary thermal imaging of raw cotton impurities, both natural (leaf, stem, seed coat fragments, etc.) and plastic (module covers, twine, agricultural mulch, etc) has shown that this new approach to measure seed coat fragments is selective over the other contaminants. The initial time series results are promising.

Technical Abstract: Discrepancies exist between the Advanced Fiber Information Systems (AFIS) seed coat nep measurements and the seed coat fragment count upon visual inspection. Various studies have indicated that the two techniques may not be sensing the same contaminants as seed coat entities. Thermal imaging is an emerging technique for identifying and quantifying impurities in the food industry. Heat is applied to increase body surface temperatures above background. Thermal decay of surface temperature is detected by a thermal imaging camera that senses emitted radiation in the infrared range. Images produced show the impurities with different surface temperatures visually displayed in different colors. Temperature-time series curves of each impurity spot in the thermograph give the information to build discriminating algorithms and to compare selectivity for one impurity over another. Preliminary thermal imaging of raw cotton impurities, both natural (leaf, stem, seed coat fragments, etc.) and plastic (module covers, twine, agricultural mulch, etc) has shown that this new approach to measure seed coat fragments is selective over the other contaminants. Also, the plastic impurities may be differentiated from the natural impurities. The initial time series results are presented based on adding known impurities to a control cotton.