Apparatus for sorting seeds

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Seeds are sorted according to colour by placing the seeds in uniform rows of indentations in a rotating drum and passing the seeds beneath a digital/imaging camera and strobe lights which create images of the seeds. The images are fed to a computer, which also receives information from a drum speed sensor. The computer generates a signal which causes a blast of air to blow through an opening in the bottom of any indentation containing a discoloured seed to reject such seed. Rejected seeds are fed into a reject hopper and the, selected or good seeds remaining in the drum indentations fall from the drum into another hopper.