Patent ID: 6805244
Filing Date: 2004-10-19
Classification: A01K,G01N

Abstract:
A method for determining whether avian eggs are qualified or unqualified for a premium quality based on shell characteristics, comprising the steps of:providing a plurality of the eggs; oscillating the shells of each egg by a non-contacting ultrasonic-wave source that needs only a single nominal operating frequency in order to propagate a spectrum of effects in the oscillating shells that is detectable by a non-contacting detector, wherein said spectrum can be graphed according to the different time-of-flight at which a select effect propagated from the source to the detector; and determining whether each egg is qualified or not from spectrum analysis; wherein the select effect comprises detected signal power as a variable against that signal's detected time-of-flight from source to detector such that said spectrum can be graphed against a vertical axis for detected-power versus a horizontal axis for the corresponding time-of-flight, wherein said spectrum as graphed so is analyzed for a positive indication consisting of at least two sufficiently strong peaks of detected-power along the time-of-flight axis within a chosen bandwidth of time-of-flight, and further that the two peaks are sufficiently steady over a sufficient amount of analysis time, wherein the positive indication is correlatable to a given quality determination of egg shell quality.