Abalone tag detection and recognition

In recent years, there have been serious concerns about the declining stocks of wild abalone combined with a rapidly increasing market demand and so aquaculture researchers are continuously investing in new methods for growing and monitoring cultured abalone. There are a number of new programs that have been planned for farmed abalone, such as selective breeding and genetic manipulation to meet world demand. These methods can only be successful if abalone traits and behaviour can be identified properly. Therefore, physical tagging of abalone shells and DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) pedigree markers have been developed to enable tracking and tracing of individuals. Researchers are continually finding more effective methods of physical tagging so that tags can be visualised more readily and will be retained on the abalone shell for a longer period of time. Identifying the tag and character information is also time and labour intensive. Therefore, automated image analysis of abalone tags may provide a solution for tracking abalone and for identifying abalone behaviour and pedigree information. After reviewing the broad field of computer vision, an image processing system was developed in MATLAB using appropriate image analysis and processing techniques, to automate the process of extracting sub-images of physical tags attached to the abalone shells, in preparation for input to an optical character recognition system, which would read the tags on the shells. The image processing system developed was able to successfully identify a number of tags from digital images directly taken from land-based tanks on various abalone farms; tag colour and character recognition was achieved. In addition, this research will help aquaculture researchers to study abalone movement, behaviour and performance traits in a cultured environment.