Non-destructive detection of chicken egg gender and viable embryos based on eggshell terahertz properties

在本财年，从2021年4月到2021年10月，我们进行了几次实验。其中一些实验是新的(蛋壳和孵化研究)，另一些实验是为了解释蛋壳的生物现象以及母鸟年龄和品种的依赖，在太赫兹区域(0.5-2.0 THz)对蛋壳光学性质的重复性。并用电子显微镜图像对蛋壳超微结构进行了观察。我们在日本农业机械和食品工程师学会(JSAM)2021年第79届年度科学会议上发表了几项基本发现。我们发现孵化和未孵化的蛋壳的折射率、老年亲代蛋群的蛋与年轻群的蛋的折射率等蛋壳光学性质存在明显而显著的差异。太赫兹区的折射率代表了蛋壳的密度。基于上述观察结果，有可能开发一种基于深度学习的母鸟无损跟踪系统，用于基于蛋壳光学特性和微观结构的健康状态监测。

We conducted several experiments during this fiscal year, April 2021 to October 2021. Some of the experiments were new (eggshell and incubation studies) and some for repeatability on optical properties of eggshell in Terahertz Region (0.5-2.0 THz) to interpret biological phenomena of chicken eggshell and dependence of mother bird age and breed. We also took eggshell ultra-structure using electronic microscopic image. We obtained several fundamental findings which was presented in Japan Society of Agricultural Machinery and Food Engineers (JSAM) 79th annual scientific conference in 2021. We found clear and significant difference of eggshell optical properties like refractive index of incubated and non-incubated eggshell, difference between eggs from older parent flock and eggs from younger flock. The refractive index in terahertz region indicates the density of eggshell. Based on the above observation, it was possible to develop a deep learning based non-destructive protocol on mother birds tracing system for their health status monitoring based on eggshell optical properties and micro-structure.