Systems, methods and devices for use in filter-based assessment of carcass grading
AssigneeBiotronics
InventorsDoyle E. Wilson, Viren R. Amin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods, systems and devices are implemented in connection with measuring the relative content of intramuscular fat (IMF) in a portion of muscle tissue. Consistent with one such method a probe is presented to the portion of muscle tissue. The probe produces a response-provoking signal in the muscle tissue. A resulting signal is used to determine the relative content of IMF in the portion of muscle tissue as a function of a selected filter.
Claims19
A method of measuring the relative content of intramuscular fat (IMF) in a portion of muscle tissue of a food animal, the method comprising:
- presenting a probe to the food animal to carry a response-provoking signal to the portion of muscle tissue;
- selecting an appropriate filter for image data captured from the probe;
- and
- measuring, as a function of the filter, the relative content of IMF in the portion of muscle tissue as a function of the pressure being exerted between the probe and the food animal.
A system for measuring the relative content of intramuscular fat (IMF) in a portion of muscle tissue, the system comprising:
- a probe for carrying a response-provoking signal to the portion of muscle tissue;
- a data processor to measure the relative content of IMF in the portion of muscle tissue, wherein the relative content of IMF is determined as a function of the response-provoking signal and a selected filter.
A device assessing characteristics of a portion of muscle tissue from a food animal, comprising:
- an image sensor for imaging the portion muscle tissue;
- an image processing arrangement for generating image parameters from images obtained from the image sensor, for selecting a subset of the generated image parameters and for generating an assessment of characteristics of the portion of muscle tissue as a function of the selected subset;
- and
- a user interface for allowing human interaction with the device.
A method of assessing tissue characteristics or attributes in a portion of muscle tissue, the method comprising one or more of the following steps:
- capturing a set of image frames of the portion of muscle tissue;
- performing frame editing or selection of the captured sets of image frames;
- performing automatic image quality detection;
- determining fat thickness and muscle depth;
- applying image texture processing to one or more of the set of image frames;
- and
- extracting, from the set of image frames, tissue characteristics or attributes of the portion of muscle tissue.
A method of measuring a relative content of intramuscular fat (IMF) in a portion of muscle tissue in a food animal, the method comprising:
- presenting an ultrasound signal to the portion of muscle tissue using a probe;
- capturing image data corresponding to one or more image frames of the portion of muscle tissue from the ultrasound signal;
- determining image-based parameters from the captured image data;
- filtering the image-based parameters in response to a statistical correlation between values of the parameters and an accuracy of IMF determinations;
- and
- measuring the relative content of IMF in the portion of muscle tissue as a function of at least one IMF determination algorithm that uses the filtered image-based parameters.
A method of measuring percent lean in a food animal, the method comprising:
- presenting an ultrasound signal to a tissue region of a food animal using a probe;
- capturing image data corresponding to one or more image frames of the tissue region from the ultrasound signal;
- performing filter-based editing of the captured one or more image frames;
- determining image-based landmarks and tissue interfaces from captured one or more image frames;
- calculating fat depth and muscle depth parameters by applying a statistical filter to the one or more image frames;
- and
- measuring the percent lean in the food animal as a function of the calculated fat depth and muscle depth parameters using a pressure sensor based filter and a statistical filter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.