United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Agriculture

US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

The United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of

Yud-Ren Chen

Moon S Kim

Alan M Lefcourt

Kuanglin Chao

Patrick J Marek

Andre G Senecal

Steven A Robinson

The hand-held inspection tool enhances the ability of an on-site inspector to detect and communicate the presence of contamination on an object or in an area. An on-site inspector directs an excitation light in the sensing head of the tool into an area of interest. If the targeted contamination is present, the excitation light causes the contamination to emit fluorescence. The emitted fluorescent light passes through a narrow spectral band-pass video camera filter and is detected by a video camera mounted in the tool sensing head. The video camera transmits the image to a display visible to the on-site inspector. The invention also includes a means of recording, documenting, and wirelessly communicating the inspection process so that remotely located personnel can view the inspection, and respond to the inspection findings in real time.

Hand-held inspection tool and method

Time-dependent differences in fluorescence responses of normal surfaces of the fruit or vegetable as opposed to surfaces which are contaminated with feces, may be used for improved detection of feces-contaminated fruits and vegetables. In this process, the surface of a fruit or vegetable which contains a native chlorophyll is illuminated with a pulse of UV or visible light having a wavelength effective to elicit fluorescence of feces of a plant consuming animal. The intensity of fluorescent light emissions from the surface are measured at one or more wavelengths characteristic of the emission spectra of chlorophyll or its degradation products, at a nanosecond-scale time period or window which is after the peak emission of the native chlorophyll of the fruit or vegetable. The presence of fecal contamination is determined by comparing this measured intensity to a threshold value of the intensity of fluorescent light emissions for a non-feces contaminated control of the same fruit or vegetable measured at substantially the same conditions, substantially the same said time period, and at substantially the same said wavelengths. A determination that the measured intensity of the fluorescent light emissions is significantly greater than the threshold value is an indication of the presence of fecal material on the surface of the fruit or vegetable.

Use of nanosecond scale, time-resolved, imaging to differentiate contemporaneous fluorescence responses from multiple substances

Bones, bone fragments, and shell fragments on or near the surface of processed animal flesh may be detected by detecting their fluorescent emissions. The surface of the flesh is illuminated with UV or visible light to elicit fluorescence of animal bones or shells, and the fluorescent light emissions are measured at first and second different wavelengths, which wavelengths are selected to yield a substantial difference between the ratio or subtractive difference for bones or shells and the ratio or subtractive difference for animal flesh. The ratio and/or subtractive difference of the fluorescent light emissions at the first and second wavelengths is calculated, and the presence of bone, bone fragment, or shell fragment is determined therefrom.

Method to detect bone fragments during the processing of meat or fish

An applications system has been developed to assist meat graders in deciding the yield and quality grades of carcasses. The applications system comprises: (1) an input for information relating to characteristics of a carcass to be graded; (2) a program comprising a knowledge base of facts and rules relating to grading of the carcasses; (3) an inference engine for processing the input information against the facts and rules of the knowledge base to arrive at yield and quality grades for the carcass; and (4) an output for the carcass grades. An embodiment useful for the grading of beef carcasses has been illustrated.

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Laurel, MD, United States of America

Yud-Ren Chen