The same technology used to identify criminals from finger prints is being trialled as part of a project that will help growers automatically recognise and classify tuber blemishes.
Approximately 6.5m tonnes of potatoes are grown in Great Britain each year and skin blemishes and defects are estimated to cost the industry in excess of £5m.
Visual appearance is a key influencer to customer preference and supermarket tolerances for low blemish tubers are set accordingly. BPC Sutton Bridge Experimental Unit (SBEU) is working on the project in conjunction with Lincoln University where the research is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.
The three-year study started in June and is currently investigating the use of technologies including Structured Light. SL is a system used to flatten out the surface of a 3d object, used by some police forces on photographs of fingerprints. It can also be used to flatten out photographs of potatoes to allow quick measurement of the areas of specific potato skin diseases.
“Today’s commercially-available camera systems can recognise blemished skin and grade potatoes accordingly. The innovative system being researched would be able to recognise different skin blemishes,” says SBEU’s operations manager, Adrian Cunnington.
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