How I.M. uses two light spectrums to separate good nuts from reject material…and why it’s important.
The Color Spectrum – The first spectrum is visible light, . . color you can see with the naked eye. Initially, you “teach” the sorter what a good in-shell pecan looks like by running a sample in “Training” mode. The camera images the differences in color and I.M.’s proprietary software identifies which objects are to be ejected.
However, many darker in-shell pecans are close in color to sticktights, some sticks, etc. In those cases color is just not adequate. The closer in color the good pecans are to the reject material, the less efficient the sort.
The Near Infrared Spectrum – Thus, the second spectrum, near-infrared light. NIR is particularly good at separating by surface “texture”, and can easily distinguish between good in-shell pecans with a “hard” surface and sticktights or sticks with a “soft” surface, regardless of color. I.M. uses a unique Dual Spectrum™ camera that also captures images in NIR to detect the difference in “texture”, just as it also does in color.
The Dual Spectrum Imaging™ Difference If an object fails either test – color or NIR – I.M.’s proprietary software identifies it for ejection. If the sorter misses a sticktight, stick-or whatever-with color imaging, it’s caught with NIR imaging–and vice versa–all in a single pass through the imaging area.
I.M.’s exclusive Dual Spectrum Imaging™ delivers the most efficient sorting possible at the lowest operating cost to the grower.
Green, early harvest sticktight and light, good pecan. They can be separated with color, but not with NIR
Dark sticktight and dark, good pecan. We can tell them apart with NIR, but not with color