• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 1999

This study was conducted to develop an automatic egg inspection system for detecting creaked eggs based on acoustic impulse response. This system includes a sound generator, a sound sensor with signal conditioner, and a computer. The sound generator that hit the sharp of the dull edges of an egg was constructed with a ceramic ball pendulum attached to a rotary type solenoid. The signal conditioner included a pre-amplifier and a digital signal processing (DSP) board. The parameters for distinguishing cracked and normal eggs were the area, the geometric centroid and the resonance frequency of power spectrum of the acoustic signal generated. An algorithm for on-line detection of the continuous transferring eggs was developed. The performance tests resulted with 91% success rate to separate cracked and normal eggs at the rate of 1 second per an egg.