Real-time multispectral imaging application for poultry safety inspection

The ARS imaging research group in Athens, Georgia has developed a real-time multispectral imaging system for fecal and ingesta contaminant detection on broiler carcasses for poultry industry. The industrial scale system includes a common aperture camera with three visible wavelength optical trim filters. This paper demonstrates calibration of common aperture multispectral imaging hardware and real-time image processing software. The software design, especially the Unified Modeling Language (UML) design approach was used to develop real-time image processing software for on-line application. The UML models including class, object, activity, sequence, and collaboration diagram were presented. Both hardware and software for a real-time fecal and ingesta contaminant detection were tested at the pilot-scale poultry processing line. The test results of industrial sacle real-time system showed that the multispectral imaging technique performed well for detecting fecal contaminants with a commercial processing speed (currently 140 birds per minute). The accuracy for the detection of fecal and ingesta contaminates was approximately 96%.