Currently, poultry processors use human screeners to inspect the carcasses. The screeners communicate instructions to trimmers using gestures when they find a bird with undesirable parts.

Now researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) claim they have designed a computer system that automates the inspection process, making it faster and more efficient. The system eliminates the need for the human screeners and is being field tested prior to being commercialised for use.

The first communications system uses a see-through, head-mounted display worn by a trimmer. It directly overlays graphical instructions on a trimmer’s view of the birds as they pass him on the line.

The second system uses a laser scanner, mounted in a fixed location near the processing line, to project graphical instructions directly onto each bird that requires some action, such as trimming. The system tracks the carcass and beams the product onto it.

“It’s easy to see this technology working in a poultry plant,� said Blair Macintyre, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech College of Computing and an augmented reality expert. “The question is, ‘What is the best implementation of the technology to satisfy the environmental constraints?’�