Uniformity Evaluation of Temperature Field in an Oven Based on Image Processing

Abstract

Non-uniform temperature distributions in ovens affect the quality of baked goods and raise concerns regarding food safety. Traditional research on oven performance focuses on the heating mechanisms in simulated ovens and does not involve quantitative analysis of baked goods. This study proposes a model for calculating the uniformity of baked goods based on image processing technology, to quantitatively assess the distribution uniformity of different baked states and digitally express the internal temperature field distribution in the oven. First, the image of the baked goods is captured using a digital camera. Then, it is preprocessed to obtain an image containing only the region showing the baked goods. Subsequently, the simple linear iterative clustering segmentation algorithm is employed to extract the baked states. Finally, a meshing model is applied to calculate the distribution variance of each baked state, and the evaluation index describing the uniformity of the baked goods image is obtained by normalizing the variance in the distribution. The simple linear iterative clustering segmentation algorithm expresses the color features of acquired baked goods images in the form of superpixels. By determining the distribution and proportion of different baked states, the proposed method can qualitatively and quantitatively reflect the spatial distribution of the temperature fields inside the oven corresponding to the baked goods image. This provides a strong basis for further evaluation of the heat distribution field inside the oven. INDEX TERMS Image processing, meshing model, oven temperature field, simple linear iterative clustering, uniformity evaluation.