Checking chicken

Technology that transfers computer-generated information onto the physical world is being tested for use in poultry plants to improve communication between computers and workers.

Using augmented reality (AR) technology, researchers have designed two systems that project graphical instructions from an automated inspection system onto birds on a processing line. These symbols tell workers how to trim or whether to discard defective products.

Right now, inspection is done visually by human screeners, who communicate instructions to trimmers using gestures. But an automated inspection system developed and field tested by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTR’) is being commercialised, and poultry plant officials are likely to implement the technology in the near term, said J. Craig Wyvill, head of the GTR Food Technology Processing Division.

“When that happens, the industry will need an efficient way to link communication from the imaging system to the trimmers,” Wyvill noted. So in a project funded by GTR’s state-supported Agricultural Technology Research Program, GTR researchers are collaborating with experts in the Georgia Tech College of Computing to use AR technology in poultry plants. AR applications have been successfully demonstrated in industrial assembly and inspection, as well as the medical field.