COMPUTER VISION TECHNOLOGY FOR FOOD QUALITY ASSURANCE

Computer vision systems are being used increasingly in the food indust ry for quality assurance purposes. Essentially, such systems replace h uman inspectors for the evaluation of a variety of quality attributes of raw and prepared foods. Over the past few years, the explosive grow th in both computer hardware and software has led to many significant advances in computer vision technology. Computer vision applications r ange from routine inspection to complex vision-guided robotic controls . Computer vision technology provides a high level of flexibility and repeatability at relatively low cost. It also permits fairly high plan t throughput without compromising accuracy. Currently, computer vision systems are being developed as an integral part of food processing pl ants for on-line, real-time quality evaluation and quality control.