FAT DEPTH MEASURING APPARATUS

摘要

A fat depth measuring apparatus and method for use in measuring in an animal (10 ) the depth of a fat layer (14) between hide (12) and muscle (16). An ultrasonic generator (25) generates ultrasonic pul ses and an ultrasonic echo detector (25) generates echo signals (26) indicative of ultrasonic pulses received by the detector after reflection from boundaries or discontinuities (13, 15) within the tissues of the animal. Variable gain amplifier (35) amplifies the echo signals (26) and produces detector signals (38), Gain control means (40) varies the gain of the amplifier (35) to increase the probability of having exactly two detector signals (38) identifiable as arising from echoes from a hide/fat boundary (13) and a fat /muscle boundary (15). A fat depth determining means (47) receives the detector signals (38) and if they exceed primary thresho ld levels (39a, 39b) identifies the two required detector signals (38a, 38b) so as to thereby enable determination of the depth o f the fat layer (14). If more than three detector signals have levels exceeding 60 % of the threshold level (39), the dep th determination is considered invalid.