Method and apparatus for measuring characteristics of meat
First Claim
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1. A method of measuring characteristics of meat, comprising the steps of:
- transmitting an ultrasonic signal into the meat using an A scan ultrasonic transducer;
receiving a return of said ultrasonic signal using said A scan transducer; and
determining a characteristic of the meat by performing a fast fourier transform on said return signal.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for measuring characteristics of meat, such as beef. More particularly, the invention uses quantitative analysis of ultrasonic A scan signals to measure the following characteristics of meat in real time: the percentage of intramuscular fat, the quality grade, the merit number, the depth of back fat and the approximate size of a predetermined rib eye area. The ultrasonic A scan signals are measured above the twelfth rib, above the thirteenth rib and between the twelfth and thirteenth ribs. The invention can be used with either live or processed animals.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method of measuring characteristics of meat, comprising the steps of:
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transmitting an ultrasonic signal into the meat using an A scan ultrasonic transducer; receiving a return of said ultrasonic signal using said A scan transducer; and determining a characteristic of the meat by performing a fast fourier transform on said return signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. An apparatus for measuring characteristics of meat, comprising:
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an A scan transducer that transmits an ultrasonic signal into the meat and receives a return signal; and a computer connected to receive said return signal from said A scan transducer, said computer converting said return signal to the frequency spectrum by a fast fourier transform and determining a characteristic of the meat based on characteristics of said fourier transformed return signal. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method of monitoring the genetic characteristics of a plurality of beef animals, comprising:
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assigning each of said plurality of beef animals an identification number; transmitting an ultrasonic signal into each of said plurality of beef animals using an A scan ultrasonic transducer; receiving a return signal of said ultrasonic signal for each of said plurality of beef animals using said A scan transducer; determining the characteristics of each of said plurality of beef animals by performing a fast fourier transform on said return signal; and storing said identification numbers and their associated meat characteristics in a database. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification