Non-destructive and non-invasive egg sex detection device and method

Abstract

The present invention relates to a non-destructive and non-invasive egg sex detection device and method. The method comprises: an etching step of generating an ultrafast laser for etching egg shells via a variable light laser capable of varying at least one of a wavelength, an output, pulse energy, or a pulse repetition rate, irradiating the ultrafast laser on an egg surface, and processing the thickness of the egg surface with high precision to form a microchannel; a spectroscopic analysis step of generating an ultrafast laser for spectroscopic analysis via the variable light laser, irradiating the ultrafast laser on the microchannel of the egg, and then photographing and analyzing Raman spectroscopy and absorption spectroscopy to obtain a molecular vibration pattern; and an egg sex detection step of implementing a deep learning model in which a correlation between the molecular vibration pattern and an egg sex is pre-learned, and predicting and notifying of the egg sex corresponding to the molecular vibration pattern currently obtained through the deep learning model.

Description

Non-destructive and non-invasive egg sex detection device and method

[0001] The present invention relates to a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device and method that maximizes the accuracy of the test while maintaining the marketability of the egg.

[0002] Chickens are divided into broilers, raised for chicken production, and laying hens, raised for egg production. While broilers typically have a short laying period of around 35 days, laying hens are raised for approximately 80 weeks and produce approximately 250 to 300 eggs annually until they reach 80 weeks of age.

[0003] Male chicks in laying hens have no economic value and are slaughtered immediately after hatching, and this culling of male chicks has become a serious economic and ethical problem for the livestock industry as a whole.

[0004] Germany became the first country in the world to pass a law banning the culling of male chicks, with the first ban on chick culling set to take effect in 2022. With the growing importance of animal ethics, governments and companies around the world are developing technologies to detect the sex of chicks before hatching.

[0005] Accordingly, a research team at the University of Leipzig in Germany developed a technology to detect the sex of a 9-day-old egg by drilling a hole with a diameter smaller than a needle with a laser, extracting a drop of allantoic fluid, and measuring the concentration of the female hormone estrone sulfate. German egg producer Seleggt is automating and applying this method to determine the sex of 3,000 eggs per hour.

[0006] However, the above gender detection system has high initial facility construction costs, making it difficult to introduce it to actual commercial farms.

[0007] Meanwhile, a joint research team from Australia and Israel has proposed a technique to use gene editing technology to insert a yellow fluorescent protein gene into the Z chromosome of a hen's sex chromosome, then detect the yellow fluorescent protein to identify male eggs. While this technique offers the advantage of allowing simple detection, it also requires genetic modification of all hens.

[0008] Accordingly, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device and method that can perform egg sex detection in a non-destructive, non-invasive manner using an infrared ultra-high-speed laser.

[0009] In addition, the present invention aims to provide a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device and method that can perform egg sex detection with high contrast and high resolution by partially etching the egg surface to enhance the signal intensity.

[0010] The purpose of the present invention is not limited to the purposes mentioned above, and other purposes not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description below.

[0011] As a means for solving the above problem, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for detecting egg sex is provided, including: an etching step of generating an ultra-fast laser for etching an eggshell using a variable laser capable of varying at least one of a wavelength, output, pulse energy, and pulse repetition rate, and then irradiating the ultra-fast laser on the surface of an egg to precisely process the thickness of the egg surface to form a micro-channel; a spectroscopic analysis step of generating an ultra-fast laser for spectroscopic analysis using the variable laser, then irradiating the ultra-fast laser on the micro-channel of the egg, and then photographing and analyzing Raman spectrometry and absorption spectrometry to obtain a molecular vibration pattern; and an egg sex detection step of having a deep learning model in which a correlation between the molecular vibration pattern and the egg sex is pre-learned, and predicting and notifying the egg sex corresponding to the currently obtained molecular vibration pattern through the deep learning model.

[0012] The above-mentioned microchannel of the egg is characterized by having an egg thickness of about 100 to 200 μm.

[0013] The above ultra-fast laser for eggshell etching is characterized by using an ultra-fast laser having a femtosecond wavelength of 800 to 1030 nm, a pulse energy of 0.5 mJ, and a pulse repetition rate of 1 kHz.

[0014] The above ultrafast laser for spectroscopic analysis is characterized by using an ultrafast laser having a wavelength of 1045 nm or 680 to 980 nm, an average output of 500 mW or more, a pulse repetition rate of 80 MHz, and a pulse energy of 5 nJ or more.

[0015] The above deep learning model is implemented using any one of ANN, DNN, CNN, and RNN, and is characterized by pre-learning the correlation between the molecular vibration pattern and the egg sex through a plurality of training data having the molecular vibration pattern as an input condition and the egg sex as an output condition.

[0016]

[0017] As a means for solving the above problem, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device is provided, including: a variable laser capable of generating and irradiating a laser by varying at least one of a wavelength, an output, a pulse energy, and a pulse repetition rate; a laser etching unit that generates an ultra-fast laser for etching an eggshell through the variable laser and irradiates the laser onto an egg to form a micro-channel on the surface of the egg; a laser irradiation unit that generates an ultra-fast laser for spectroscopic analysis through the variable laser and irradiates the ultra-fast laser onto the micro-channel of the egg; a spectroscopic analysis unit that photographs and analyzes a Raman spectrum and an absorption spectrum of the egg to obtain a molecular vibration pattern; and a sex determination unit that has a deep learning model in which a correlation between a molecular vibration pattern and the sex of the egg is pre-learned, and predicts and notifies the sex of the egg corresponding to the currently obtained molecular vibration pattern through the deep learning model.

[0018] The present invention aims to provide a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device and method that can perform egg sex detection in a non-destructive, non-invasive manner by using a laser of a new wavelength range called an infrared ultra-fast laser.

[0019] In addition, the present invention aims to provide a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device and method that can perform egg sex detection with high contrast and high resolution by partially etching the egg surface to enhance the signal intensity.

[0020] FIG. 1 is a drawing for explaining a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0021] FIG. 2 is a drawing for explaining ultra-high-speed lasers for spectral analysis irradiated by a laser irradiation unit according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 3 is a drawing for explaining the infrared transmission characteristics of eggshells.

[0023] Figure 4 is a drawing for explaining the egg etching principle of the laser etching section.

[0024] Figure 5 is a diagram showing the molecular vibration pattern that changes depending on the sex of the egg.

[0025] FIG. 6 is a drawing for explaining a non-destructive, non-invasive method for detecting egg sex according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0026] Hereinafter, with reference to the attached drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily practice the present invention. However, when describing preferred embodiments of the present invention in detail, if a detailed description of a related known function or configuration is judged to unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, such detailed description will be omitted. In addition, the same reference numerals are used throughout the drawings for parts that perform similar functions and actions.

[0027] Additionally, throughout the specification, when a part is said to be "connected" to another part, this includes not only cases where it is "directly connected," but also cases where it is "indirectly connected" with other elements intervening. Furthermore, unless specifically stated otherwise, "including" a component does not exclude other components, but rather implies the inclusion of other components.

[0028]

[0029] FIG. 1 is a drawing for explaining a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0030] Referring to FIG. 1, the non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device of the present invention includes a variable light laser (110), a laser etching unit (120), a laser irradiation unit (130), a spectroscopic analysis unit (140), and a male / female determination unit (150).

[0031] A variable light laser (120) generates and irradiates laser while varying at least one of wavelength, output, and frequency.

[0032] In particular, the present invention enables generation and irradiation of an ultra-high-speed laser used for both surface processing and sex discrimination through a single variable-wave laser (120). In addition, by generating and using an ultra-high-speed laser rather than a continuous-wave laser, signal-to-signal sensitivity can be improved.

[0033]

[0034] The laser etching unit (120) generates an ultra-high-speed laser with a high peak output through a variable laser (120) and irradiates it toward the surface of the egg, thereby forming microchannels with a preset thickness and pattern on the surface of the egg.

[0035] At this time, the thickness of the egg after laser etching is preferably about 100 to 200 μm so that the shape and strength of the eggshell are maintained while excited electrons can more easily penetrate the eggshell.

[0036] In addition, the ultra-fast laser for eggshell etching is most preferably an 800-1030 nm femtosecond laser (i.e., titanium sapphire laser) to reduce melting caused by etching and enable high-precision surface processing, and the pulse energy is 0.5 mJ, and the pulse repetition rate is 1 kHz, but it is not necessary to be limited thereto.

[0037]

[0038] The laser irradiation unit (130) generates either a Supercontinuum-based visible-near-infrared ultrafast laser or an OPA (optical parametric amplification)-based near-infrared-mid-infrared ultrafast laser through a variable laser (120) as shown in FIG. 2, and then irradiates the laser toward a microchannel formed in the egg, so that various molecules contained in the egg vibrate in response to the ultrafast laser. In other words, it enables the distinction of lipids, proteins, hormones, etc. through Raman spectroscopy using near-infrared and absorption spectroscopy in the mid-infrared region, and can be used to determine the sex of the egg.

[0039] At this time, the laser for spectroscopic analysis may be a 750 nm spectroscopic laser. In addition, it may have two wavelengths of 1045 nm and tunable wavelengths of 680-980 nm, each having an average output of 500 mW or more, a pulse repetition rate of 80 MHz, and a pulse energy of 5 nJ or more, but is not limited thereto.

[0040]

[0041] The spectral analysis unit (140) captures an infrared signal that is generated by the vibration of molecules excited by a laser, then passes through an eggshell and is scattered, thereby obtaining at least one of a Raman spectrum and an absorption spectrum, and then analyzes the spectrum to trace a molecular-level vibration pattern.

[0042]

[0043] The sex determination unit (150) is equipped with a deep learning model that has been pre-trained on the correlation between molecular vibration patterns and egg sex, and predicts and reports the sex of the egg corresponding to the currently tracked molecular vibration pattern through the pre-trained deep learning model. At this time, the deep learning model may be implemented as an ANN, DNN, CNN, RNN, etc., but need not be limited thereto.

[0044]

[0045] Figure 3 is a drawing for explaining the infrared transmission characteristics of eggshells.

[0046] Referring to Figure 3, the main component that accounts for 97% of the eggshell is calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) has the property of transmitting more than 70% of infrared rays at a light wavelength of 3 to 40 μm.

[0047] More specifically, it was confirmed that although there was a loss of signal intensity of up to 50% due to infrared absorption at 6-7 μm and 26-34 μm, in other optical wavelength ranges, spectroscopic access to the infrared signal passing through the eggshell was possible.

[0048] Accordingly, in the present invention, by generating and irradiating infrared rays having wavelengths other than 6-7 μm and 26-34 μm, a light irradiation operation for distinguishing between males and females is performed without completely removing the moon shell.

[0049]

[0050] In addition, in the present invention, as shown in (a) of FIG. 4, by forming a micro-channel pattern by etching a portion of the thickness of the eggshell without completely removing the eggshell, the intensity of the excitation signal transmitted through the micro-channel pattern is increased, thereby enabling the spectral analysis unit (140) to capture a high-contrast × high-resolution image.

[0051] In addition, the microchannel pattern (i.e., the laser etching area) can be formed in an area unit through multiple points rather than a single point, as shown in (b) of Fig. 4, thereby further promoting the enhancement of the excitation signal intensity through non-destructive shell processing.

[0052] At this time, it is of course natural that the shape and thickness of the microchannel pattern can be varied within a range that does not threaten the survival of the living embryo inside the egg.

[0053]

[0054] Figure 5 is a diagram showing the molecular vibration pattern that changes depending on the sex of the egg.

[0055] Referring to Figure 5, OPO, CC, PO2-, Am.Ⅲ, CH depending on the sex of the egg X The content of these components is slightly different, and due to these characteristics, when tracking molecular vibration changes using mid-infrared Raman spectroscopy or absorption spectroscopy, a phenomenon occurs in which the molecular vibration patterns become different from each other.

[0056] Accordingly, in the present invention, big data is constructed by classifying and storing molecular vibration changes based on mid-infrared Raman spectroscopy or absorption spectroscopy according to gender, and then, based on this, a deep learning model is pre-learned the correlation between molecular vibration patterns and egg gender.

[0057] That is, by generating a large amount of learning data with molecular vibration patterns as input conditions and egg sex as output conditions, and then repeatedly training a deep learning model using these learning data, the deep learning model that has completed training can automatically predict egg sex using only molecular vibration patterns.

[0058]

[0059] FIG. 6 is a drawing for explaining a non-destructive, non-invasive method for detecting egg sex according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0060] First, when the egg is placed at a preset position, the laser etching unit (120) controls at least one of the wavelength, output, and frequency of the variable laser (120) to generate a mid-infrared ultra-fast laser with high peak output and irradiate it toward the surface of the egg, thereby etching a portion of the thickness of the egg surface to form a microchannel (S1).

[0061] When a microchannel is formed, the laser irradiation unit (130) controls at least one of the wavelength, output, and frequency of the variable laser (120) to generate a laser for Raman analysis and irradiate it toward the microchannel formed in the egg (S2).

[0062] OPO, CC, PO2-, Am.Ⅲ, CH present inside the egg by laser irradiation through microchannel X When molecules corresponding to the components of the etc. are excited and vibrate, the spectral analysis unit (140) photographs and analyzes at least one of the Raman spectrum and absorption spectrum to obtain a molecular vibration pattern (S3).

[0063] Then, the sex determination unit (150) predicts the sex of the egg corresponding to the currently acquired molecular vibration pattern through a deep learning model in which the correlation between the molecular vibration pattern and the sex of the egg has been pre-learned, and then notifies the user of this audiovisually (S4).

[0064]

[0065] In this way, in the present invention, after etching the surface of the egg so as not to threaten the survival of the embryo living inside the egg, a percontinum-based visible-near-infrared ultrafast laser and an OPA-based near-infrared-mid-infrared ultrafast laser are used to perform comprehensive information collection and analysis of molecules inside the egg, thereby performing an egg sex detection operation with high contrast and high resolution without causing a decrease in marketability due to damage to the egg shell.

[0066]

[0067] In addition, by using a tunable laser whose wavelength, output, and frequency can be varied, both surface processing operations and Raman analysis operations can be performed, thereby minimizing the cost and effort of device implementation.

[0068]

[0069] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Furthermore, such modifications should not be understood individually from the technical idea or prospect of the present invention.

Claims

1. In a method for detecting egg sex using a non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device, An etching step of generating an ultrafast laser for etching an eggshell by a tunable laser capable of varying at least one of wavelength, output, pulse energy, and pulse repetition rate, and then irradiating the laser onto the surface of the egg to precisely process the thickness of the surface of the egg to form microchannels; A spectroscopic analysis step of generating an ultra-fast laser for spectroscopic analysis using the above variable laser, irradiating the microchannel of the egg, and then photographing and analyzing Raman spectrometry and absorption spectrometry to obtain a molecular vibration pattern; and An egg gender detection method comprising a deep learning model in which a correlation between a molecular vibration pattern and egg gender is pre-learned, and an egg gender detection step for predicting and reporting an egg gender corresponding to a currently acquired molecular vibration pattern through the deep learning model.

2. In the first paragraph, the microchannel of the egg A method for detecting the sex of an egg, characterized in that the egg has a thickness of about 100 to 200 μm.

3. In the first paragraph, the ultra-high-speed laser for etching eggshells is An egg sex detection method characterized by using an ultrafast laser having a femtosecond wavelength of 800 to 1030 nm, a pulse energy of 0.5 mJ, and a pulse repetition rate of 1 kHz.

4. In the first paragraph, the ultra-high-speed laser for spectroscopic analysis A method for detecting the sex of an egg, characterized by using an ultrafast laser having a wavelength of 1045 nm or 680 to 980 nm, an average power of 500 mW or more, a pulse repetition rate of 80 MHz, and a pulse energy of 5 nJ or more.

5. In the first paragraph, the deep learning model An egg gender detection method characterized by pre-learning the correlation between a molecular vibration pattern and egg gender through a plurality of training data having a molecular vibration pattern as an input condition and egg gender as an output condition, and implemented using any one of ANN, DNN, CNN, and RNN.

6. A tunable laser capable of generating and irradiating laser by varying at least one of wavelength, output, pulse energy, and pulse repetition rate; A laser etching unit that generates an ultra-fast laser for etching eggshells using the above variable laser and irradiates the egg to form microchannels on the surface of the egg; A laser irradiation unit that generates an ultra-fast laser for spectral analysis using the variable light laser and irradiates the ultra-fast laser onto the microchannel of the egg; A spectroscopic analysis unit for photographing and analyzing Raman spectra and absorption spectra of the above eggs to obtain molecular vibration patterns; and A non-destructive, non-invasive egg sex detection device comprising a deep learning model in which a correlation between a molecular vibration pattern and egg sex is pre-learned, and a male / female determination unit for predicting and reporting the egg sex corresponding to the currently acquired molecular vibration pattern through the deep learning model.

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