Optical penetration-based silkworm pupa gender sensor structure.
This paper proposes and experimentally demonstrates for what is believed to be the first time a highly sought-after optical structure for highly-accurate identification of the silkworm pupa gender. The key idea is to exploit a long wavelength optical beam in the red or near infrared spectrum that can effectively and safely penetrate the body of a silkworm pupa. Later on, simple image processing operations via image thresholding, blob filtering, and image inversion processes are applied in order to eliminate the unwanted image noises and at the same time highlight the gender gland. Experimental proof of concept using three 636 nm wavelength light emitting diodes, a two-dimensional web camera, an 8 bit microcontroller board, and a notebook computer shows a very high 95.6% total accuracy in identifying the gender of 45 silkworm pupae with a measured fast identification time of 96.6 ms. Other key features include low cost, low component counts, and ease of implementation and control.
Intelligent Devices and Systems Research Unit, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Ministry of Science and Technology, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, Thailand. sarun.sumriddetchkajorn@nectec.or.th
Sarun
S
Sumriddetchkajorn
Chakkrit
C
Kamtongdee
D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D009391:Nephelometry and Turbidimetry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055096:Optical Devices; D011679:Pupa / Q000502:physiology; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000295:instrumentation*