The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 27, 1983
Filed:
Oct. 10, 1978
Richard Alexander, Culver City, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
Food stuff maturity sensing and inspection apparatus particularly suited for sensing the maturity of head lettuce and the like. The sensing apparatus utilizes an x-ray radioactive source for directing radiation toward the growing vegetable, with an x-ray detector on the opposite side of the vegetable detecting the attenuation of the radiation caused by the density of the vegetable therebetween. The normal inverse exponential attenuation of radiation caused by an object between a source and sensor is effectively linearized by the use of a simple high accuracy logarithmic count rate circuit. The relatively low energy of x-ray emitters such as Cadmium 109 results in greater rates of change of the detected signal for a given change of density of the vegetables in the path of the radiation. The technique may also be used to detect foreign materials harvested with food crops from the density differences detected by the apparatus.