Line-scan hyperspectral imaging for real-time poultry fecal detection

Abstract

The ARS multispectral imaging system with three-band common aperture camera was able to inspect fecal contaminants in real-time mode during poultry processing. Recent study has demonstrated several image processing methods including binning, cuticle removal filter, median filter, and morphological analysis in real-time mode could remove false positive errors. The ARS research groups and their industry partner are now merging the fecal detection and systemically disease detection systems onto a common platform using line-scan hyperspectral imaging system. This system will aid in commercialization by creating one hyperspectral imaging system with user-defined wavelengths that can be installed in different locations of the processing line to solve significant food safety problems. Therefore, this research demonstrated the feasibility of line-scan hyperspectral imaging system in terms of processing speed and detection accuracy for a real-time, on-line fecal detection at current processing speed (140 birds per minute) of commercial poultry plant. The newly developed line-scan hyperspectral imaging system could improve Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS)'s poultry safety inspection program significantly.