Computer vision technology for food quality assurance

Computer vision systems are being used increasingly in the food industry for quality assurance purposes. Essentially, such systems replace human inspectors for the evaluation of a variety of quality attributes of raw and prepared foods. Over the past few years, the explosive growth in both computer hardware and software has led to many significant advances in computer vision technology. Computer vision applications range 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 plant throughput without compromising accuracy. Currently, computer vision systems are being developed as an integral part of food processing plants for on-line, real-time quality evaluation and quality control.