US 11,672,255 B2
Method for evaluating a health state of an anatomical element, related evaluation device and related evaluation system
Giuseppe Marruchella, Chieti (IT); Luca Bergamini, Chieti (IT); Andrea Capobianco Dondona, Chieti (IT); Ercole Del Negro, Chieti (IT); Francesco Di Tondo, Chieti (IT); Angelo Porrello, Chieti (IT); and Simone Calderara, Chieti (IT)
Assigned to FARM4TRADE S.R.L., Chieti (IT)
Filed by FARM4TRADE S.R.L., Chieti (IT)
Filed on Sep. 2, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/9,973.
Claims priority of application No. 102019000015893 (IT), filed on Sep. 9, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0068404 A1, Mar. 11, 2021
Int. Cl. A22B 5/00 (2006.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01); A22C 17/00 (2006.01); G01N 33/12 (2006.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01)
CPC A22B 5/007 (2013.01) [A22C 17/008 (2013.01); G01N 33/12 (2013.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01); G06T 7/0004 (2013.01); G06T 7/0014 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20081 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20084 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30096 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30128 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for evaluating (50) the health state of an anatomical element (10) of an animal in a slaughtering plant (1), the slaughtering plant (1) being provided with an image acquisition device (18, 22) arranged so as to acquire an image of an observation area (20) of the slaughtering plant (1), the evaluation method (50) comprising the steps of:
verifying (S2), through the image acquisition device (18, 22), the presence of the anatomical element (10) in the observation area (20);
if the presence of the anatomical element (10) in the observation area (20) is verified, acquiring (S3), through the image acquisition device (18, 22), the image of the anatomical element (10);
processing (S4), by an image processing unit (34; 40) operatively coupled to the image acquisition device (18, 22), the image of the anatomical element (10) through deep learning techniques, generating a lesion image (P6), which represents lesioned portions of the anatomical element (10), and a number of processed images (P4, P5), each of which represents a corresponding non-lesioned anatomical area of the animal;
for each of the lesioned portions and for each of the non-lesioned anatomical areas, determining (S5) a corresponding quantity indicative of the probability that said lesioned portion corresponds to said non-lesioned anatomical area;
determining (S6) a score indicative of the health state of the anatomical element (10), depending on the determined quantities.