Department of Computer Science DIKU > News > News 2010 > Slaughter hogs up for ...

2010-01-15

Slaughter hogs up for CT scans

Brian Vinter from the eScience Centre at Copenhagen University has been granted DKK 11 million from The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation over the next three years.

In the future, machinery at slaughterhouses will be improved by the help of x-ray vision. A CT scanner will provide the machines with detailed knowledge concerning the hogs they have to slaughter.

Manual work has been taken over by machines and robots in order to boost numerous production processes. This also goes for Danish slaughter houses. But with this implementation the human ability to correct and discover small mistakes and errors will be lost.

A new project by Brian Vinter has been launched to develop and implement an on-line CT-scanner that will be able to add information to the machines on which tasks they have to perform. It is information that is superior to the human mind as it will be possible to look into the body of the slaughter hog.

First and foremost the project is aimed at slaughter houses and concerns the identification of the amount and distribution of meat, fat and bones, which vary from animal to animal.

Skills within x-ray hardware (InnospeXion), detectors (Unisensor) and fast data processors (Copenhagen University/eScience) are combined with knowledge from a thorough study at Deformalyze, the partner company involved.

The level of ambition is high as the project will introduce a whole new type of x-ray source, a so called cold-cathode source based on nano-tubes.

From the beginning The Danish meat processing company Danish Crown has supported the project as partner.

Even though the project's main target group is slaughter house machinery it is expected to be used in a broader spectrum, e.g. for the development and control of robot technology.

For further information please contact Brian Vinter, vinter@diku.dk, phone: 35 32 14 21.