VIP3D - an application of image processing technology for quality control in the food industry

This paper describes the VIP3D machine, developed under contract for an industrial bakery that supplies pre-cooked, frozen bread to supermarkets, hotels and other commercial outlets throughout Europe. The machine, developed and built entirely by INETI's Optoelectronics Department, is designed to make rapid and reliable measurements of bread loaves for the purpose of production quality control. This paper focuses on the problems encountered and the machine vision solutions developed, to obtain accurate 3-D measurements of the different types and sizes of loaves produced.