Development of Artificial Head for Characterization of Food SAFETY

Abstract: Food safety is of primary concern in food industry and customer consuming. Sensor systems that are the mimic of human senses have been developed and applied for characterization of food safety. Five basic human senses are: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The brain coordinates these senses. Artificial senses such as machine vision, electronic ear, electronic nose, electronic tongue, and artificial mouth have been developed to mimic the human senses. Individually each of these artificial sensing systems has their own orientations and limits. If the functions of these sensors are integrated, the integrated sensor system can be expected to be more capable and powerful than any of the individual one. Artificial head is such a new concept to combine the individual sensors that are the mimic of five human senses. Using the method of multi-sensor data fusion, an artificial head operates the individual sensors collectively and coordinates the individual measurements by a pattern recognition technique, typically artificial neural networks, which function as the human brain. This research presents and discusses individual artificial sensing systems, especially electronic nose and biosensor functioning as electronic tongue, the structure of artificial head, and its potential to apply in characterization of food safety.