The Product Quality Inspector (PQI) enables the user to inspect the product vision quality measurement system in real-time. This is done by selecting a product in the live strip on top. The strip shows live products with the most relevant views for the overall score.
When selecting a product, the PQI shows the product detail in high resolution in all available views and cameras. For example, the colour and the infrared image. When looking for a specific parameter for instance Bruises, the PQI can show annotations on the images. Annotations are marked areas on the product where the camera system identifies the parameter. Not all filters can provide a detailed annotation, but we can always mark the image that is most relevant. By looking at the scores and the annotations the user can get a deeper understanding why a product is classified in a certain way.
Sometimes the defect is barely visible in the colour image, but the annotation will show something is detected. When switching to the infrared image the annotation clearly shows the problem spot. Switching between the different types of images is easy with the switch of a button.
To make the search for a product easier the PQI has the possibility to filter on parameterclassifications, outlet and lane. When there is unexpected behaviour in the classification of a product the PQI has functions to save a product, or batches of products for reprocessing or deeper investigation.
To have a smooth working PQI there are some hard and software requirements:
To preserve space on the quality tab, we can now hide disabled quality parameters. This enhances the usability of the quality tab and allows the users to use a single program the whole season without removing non-occurring parameters from the program.
In the quality tab in Flowmaster we can use a large number of parameters to create the waterfall sorting scheme. A common use is to have a program through the whole season with all parameters available. When a specific defect is not present in the produce at that moment in the season it is possible to disable it temporary to prevent errors.
When several parameters are disabled, there is loss off screen estate and causes unnecessary scrolling. Therefore, we created a button to hide the disabled parameters. Now we can use the program throughout the season without losing overview.
The US vegetable/fruit industry has defined standard packages and sizes, where the size name is the number of products (within certain diameter criteria) which fit in a standard box. The Market Report part can now be configured to calculate the number of standard boxes that could have been filled with the sorted products.
