ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief description of the components that comprise a vision system, some information on what the commercial product offerings are, descriptions of applications of this technology in the food industry, an update of the activities of various US universities in this area, and finally a view of where this technology is heading. Today, the food industry has progressed to a stage where most of the major companies have initiated internal programs aimed at assessing the feasibility of machine vision in quality assurance applications. Expertise is needed in a variety of technical disciplines such as optics, electronic hardware, computer software, process control, quality control, and electromechanical integration, and not all of these reside within a typical food company. There are two basic methods of illumination, even though there is a variety of ways in which these methods are applied, either together or separately. The two methods are front and back lighting.
