Battelle Memorial Institute

The United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of

Colorado Seminary

Leonard J Bond

Richard A Pappas

Aaron A Diaz

Timothy L Stewart

Cynthia J Bruckner-Lea

Darrell P Chandler

Gerald J Posakony

Albert Mendoza

William F Kepler

David M Pfund

Gerald P Morgen

Kayte M Judd

William C Cliff

Doron Kishoni

Kenneth David Mahrer

Systems and techniques for detecting the presence of foreign material in food utilizing optical backlighting and/or ultrasonic inspection are presented. In optical backlighting, a substantially monochromatic light source optically backlights a food stream with source light having a wavelength between about 500 and 600 nm. An image of the food stream is captured and the presence of foreign material is determined when a portion of the detected image exceeds a predetermined threshold. The technique is especially suitable for the detection of bone in chicken meat, and the light source can be a planar array of green LEDs. In ultrasonic inspection, a process stream is interrogated with pulses of ultrasound and the presence of foreign material is determined based on the detected off-angle ultrasound scattering response.

System and technique for detecting the presence of foreign material

A method and apparatus are described for determining the doneness of food during a cooking process. Ultrasonic signal are passed through the food during cooking. The change in transmission characteristics of the ultrasonic signal during the cooking process is measured to determine the point at which the food has been cooked to the proper level. In one aspect, a heated fluid cooks the food, and the transmission characteristics along a fluid-only ultrasonic path provides a reference for comparison with the transmission characteristics for a food-fluid ultrasonic path.

System and technique for ultrasonic determination of degree of cooking

The present invention is an apparatus for ultrasonically treating a liquid to generate a product. The apparatus is capable of treating a continuously-flowing, or intermittently-flowing, liquid along a line segment coincident with the flow path of the liquid. The apparatus has one or more ultrasonic transducers positioned asymmetrically about the line segment. The ultrasonic field encompasses the line segment and the ultrasonic energy may be concentrated along the line segment. Lysing treatments have been successfully achieved with efficiencies of greater than 99% using ultrasound at MHz frequencies without erosion or heating problems and without the need for chemical or mechanical pretreatment, or contrast agents. The present invention overcomes drawbacks of current ultrasonic treatments beyond lysing and opens up new sonochemical and sonophysical processing opportunities.

Apparatus and method for ultrasonic treatment of a liquid

Systems and techniques for detecting the presence of foreign material

A system and technique for detecting the presence of foreign material is presented. An ultrasound transmitter interrogates the bulk material and an array of detectors receives the off angle ultrasound scattering response of the bulk material. The presence of foreign material is determined when the off angle scattering response exceeds a predetermined threshold. The technique is especially suitable for the detection of bone in meat.

The present invention is an apparatus and method for ultrasonically treating a liquid to generate a product. The apparatus is capable of treating a continuously-flowing, or intermittently-flowing, liquid along a line segment coincident with the flow path of the liquid. The apparatus has one or more ultrasonic transducers positioned asymmetrically about the line segment. The ultrasonic field encompasses the line segment and the ultrasonic energy may be concentrated along the line segment. Lysing treatments have been successfully achieved with efficiencies of greater than 99% using ultrasound at MHz frequencies without erosion or heating problems and without the need for chemical or mechanical pretreatment, or contrast agents. The present invention overcomes drawbacks of current ultrasonic treatments beyond lysing and opens up new sonochemical and sonophysical processing opportunities.

An ultrasonic system for grading meat transmits an ultrasonic signal into the meat and detects the resulting back-scattered signal. The envelope of the back-scattered signal is determined. A decaying exponential curve having the form y&equals;exp(&minus;Dt) is fitted to the envelope, where D is the attenuation factor for the curve and t is time. A grade of the meat is then determined as a function of the attenuation factor. It may be possible to improve the accuracy of this approach by measuring the total back-scattered energy from the back-signal and generating a grade for the meat based on a polynomial function of both the attenuation factor and the total back-scattered energy. Optionally, accuracy may be further enhanced by removing any anomalies in the back-scattered signal resulting from fat deposits in the meat before calculating the attenuation factor.

Ultrasonic system for grading meat

An acoustic travel time tomography system enables determining of physical properties of a dam, or a like concrete mass. The system includes a plurality of acoustic sensors, positioned on the dam at a plurality of spaced sensor locations which are known relative to each other, for producing output data responsive to the detection thereby of acoustic waves generated in the dam. An impact source produces an impact at an impact location which is known relative to the sensor locations so as to generate acoustic waves in the dam for detection by the sensors. A data processing unit acquires output data from the sensors produced responsive to acoustic waves generated by the impact source and analyzes this output data, together with data related to the relative locations of the sensors and the impact source, to determine physical properties of the dam.

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Richland, WA, United States of America

Leonard J Bond