Zainuddin Mohamad

The use of ultrasound As a fat measurement sensor for the food industry: A review

The involvement of ultrasound technology in the food industry started approximately 60 years ago when it was introduced as a non-invasive fat detection sensor for meat grading purposes. With the contribution of knowledge from previous researchers, ultrasound fat measurement techniques is now being prepared not only to be used in industries (controlled environment) but also commercially by the consumer in their homes (uncontrolled environment). In order to ensure this, an understanding about the relationship between ultrasound properties and composition of meat is needed. Ultrasound attenuates, reflect and refract during its propagation in a medium. These phenomena occur due to the losses within and in homogeneities of the medium. This paper presents the results of a literature review that analyses research in this area from 1990 to 2012. Based on this review, several parameters have been identified as factors that affect measurement; which are water content, measurement temperature, in homogeneity of sample due to the natural variation of sample and unwanted signal called speckle in the B - mode image. Minimizing this issue becomes the objective in order to realize the application of ultrasound fat measurement commercially by the consumer.

Low-cost solar water heater

This paper presents an overview of the use of solar energy for domestic water heating purposes. In addition, the results of a preliminary research to develop a low cost system for heating water using solar energy, a green energy source is also included. For the system presented herewith, the absorption of sunrays radiated heat is by means of a thermal collector. The heating and recirculation process are automatically controlled using sensors, actuators, and a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The results obtained indicates that the system presented have the potential to supply enough hot water to meet the requirements for domestic consumption.

Realizing a University's mission and vision through integration of evaluation method and university - industry collaboration

This paper presents a teaching and learning approach that will enable the realization of a Universitys vision and mission. In the case of University Teknologi MARA (UiTM), one of its missions is to produce engineering graduates with technical skills as well as advanced industrial management and soft skills as required by industries. It is proposed that engineering programs especially at the masters level be taught in close collaboration with industries in order to produce graduates that will be attractive and employable by both universities and industries. The proposed method would also support the transfer of knowledge and ideas from the universities to industry as well as to ensure that research carried out within academia will be relevant to the industry needs. Further, the paper highlights the benefits to be gained by the stakeholders when the proposed teaching approach is implemented.

Improving intramuscular fat measurement by considering the thickness of protective layer in ultrasonic transducer

This paper presents an overview concerning on the effect of the physical protective layer constructed in ultrasonic transducers with the measurement of ultrasonic velocity. The thickness of the protective layer was determined and applied in the Continuous Wave (CW) and Pulse Echo (PE) ultrasound velocity equations. Corrected Continuous Wave (CCW) was determined as the most accurate fat measurement method and used to measure the intramuscular fat content in chicken fillets. Standard fat measurement method, Soxhlet Method was used to validate the result. The results from the research suggested that it is possible to measure intramuscular fat content non-invasively using ultrasonic velocity measurement. The improvement of the ultrasonic velocity measurement has increased the correlation between fat content measured using Soxhlet Method and ultrasonic velocity compared to the previous research (r= -0.657 vs. r = -0.411). The research presented herewith indicates that with further knowledge of tissue compositions and ultrasound properties, ultrasound technology could be used in the prediction of chicken intramuscular fat percentage with reasonable accuracy.

Enhancement of an infrared based fat measurement sensor

Infrared has been widely used in many engineering applications especially in medical devices. For example, in biomedical engineering, infrared based sensors are used to detect and measure human body composition such as water content, fat percentage and muscle mass. Infrared based sensors are popular as it enables a fast and non-destructive method to detect fat content and water in food items. Many researchers have used infrared radiation techniques to detect and measure fat since fat is a nutrient that is needed by our body to generate energy for daily life activities. However, excessive consumption of fats will be detrimental to health. Thus, there is a need for an easy fast and cost effective method to measure fat. This paper provides an overview of research in this area; that is the use of infrared technology to detect and measure fat in food items. In addition, this paper presents the preliminary result of a research to develop an efficient fat sensor based on infrared technology.

Ultrasound B-model imaging using adapted time of flight for ultrasound fat measurement sensor

This paper presents an overview and result of the application of adapted B-mode imaging for measurement of chicken intramuscular fat content. Adapted B-mode imaging was proposed to increase the positioning accuracy of B-mode image with the objective to correct the phase error due to used of predetermined ultrasonic velocity in conventional B-mode imaging. The positioning accuracy of adaptive and conventional B-mode imaging was validated using 144 chicken samples. Adapted B-mode image has better positioning accuracy compared to conventional B-mode image since the method used was able to detect the thickness of the chicken sample with a lower mean difference (0.036±0.034mm Vs 0.113±0.010). Both methods were then applied for measurement of intramuscular fat content. Histogram mean and percentages of fat pixel is the Bmode image characteristic was extracted and correlation with the fat content was analyzed. Adaptive B-mode image properties correlate better with fat content compared to conventional Bmode image with correlation coefficient, r for the histogram mean (0.357 Vs 0.129) and percentages of fat pixel (0.406 Vs 0.289). The paper shows the potential of ultrasound adaptive Bmode imaging for application as chicken intramuscular fat measurement technique.

PointsBug versus TangentBug algorithm, a performance comparison in unknown static environment

This paper presents an overview of Bug algorithm family local path planning methodology timeline. The Bug algorithm approach detects the nearest obstacle as a mobile robot moves towards a target with limited information about the environment. It uses obstacle border as guidance toward the target. The robot circumnavigates the obstacle till it finds certain condition to fulfill the algorithm criteria to leave the obstacle towards target point. In addition, this paper presents the performance of a new path planning approach, PointsBug algorithm. The performance of PointsBug was compared to TangentBug in term of duration and distance in various types of environment. TangentBug was selected as the algorithm to be compared to as it is the best performing Bug family algorithm that uses a range sensor similar to PointsBug. The outcomes of the research indicates that PointsBug have outperformed TangentBug in average speed in the selected environment as described in this paper.