Determining the position and angular orientation of food products

A method for processing a food product, comprising:

• (a) scanning the food product;
• (b) developing a distribution map of the food product from the scanning data selected from the group consisting of an area distribution of the food product and a volume distribution of the food product;
• (c) determining the direction of a directional line related to the orientation of the food product relative to a reference line by using the data from the scanner to determine the configuration of the food product above a selected elevation along the height of the food products, said configuration comprising two spaced-apart regions of the food product, and locating the directional line based on the configurations and the relative positions of the two determined elevated regions of the food product:
• (d) utilizing the determined directional line to determine the angular orientation of the food product relative to the reference line;
• and
• (e) using the determined orientation of the food product to determine how the food product is to be further processed.

Determining the location and orientation of raw poultry breasts relative to a reference line, comprising:

• (a) scanning the poultry breasts;
• (b) generating distributions of the poultry breasts from the scanning data selected from the group consisting of an area distribution and a volume distribution of the poultry breasts;
• (c) determining the position of the poultry breasts relative to the reference line from the scanning data;
• (d) determining the direction of one or more directional lines related to the axis of symmetry of the poultry breasts, selected from the group consisting of:
• the line of least inertia for the poultry breast calculated from the second moment of the area or volume distribution of the poultry breast;
• a directional line extending between the neck notch as determined from the scanning data and the tail projection as determined from the scanning data of the poultry breast;
• a directional line extending along a linear depression of the poultry breast corresponding to the location of the keel of the poultry breast as determined from the scanning data;
• a directional line bisecting a line connecting two central features of two spaced apart elevated regions identified on the poultry breasts from the scanning data;
• a directional line corresponding to a line of symmetry between a selected elevated region of the poultry breast and a mirror image of the selected elevated region placed adjacent the selected elevated region;
• and
• (e) determining the angular orientation of the poultry breast by considering one or more of the determined directional lines.