Infrared thermal imaging for agricultural
and food applications
A Manickavasagan
and DS Jayas*
Department
of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Abstract
Purpose of the review: In thermal imaging, the surface
temperature of an object is mapped into a high resolution two-dimensional
image. Thermal imaging has been used widely in various fields such as the
military, medicine, and electrical and mechanical engineering. In recent
years, this method has become increasingly popular for many applications in
the agricultural and food sector due to the portability of the equipment
involved and the simplicity of the operational procedures. This article
reviews the fundamentals of infrared thermal imaging and its applications
in agricultural and food processing, and discusses future research directions
for commercial applications.
Limitations/implications: Environmental factors such as
wind, sun, fog and rain affect the performance of thermographic surveys in
outdoor applications. For quantitative temperature measurement using
thermal imaging, the emissivity of the objects must be high and known.
Directions for future research: Most of the postharvest
applications that use this method need pre-treatments (heating or cooling)
before imaging to obtain the desired thermal information and the type of
pre-treatment varies for different applications. The success of this method
for classification or quality determination in real-time applications
depends mainly on the development of a robust pre-treatment method and test
procedures for various applications.
Keywords: thermal imaging; on-farm operations;
postharvest operations; food processing
*Correspondence to: DS Jayas,
Department of Biosystems
Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
MB, Canada
R3T 5V6. email: Digvir_Jayas@umanitoba.ca
Stewart Postharvest Review 2007,
5:4
Published online 01 October 2007
doi: 10.2212/spr.2007.5.4
