Method of processing images for material recognition by X-rays

• US 6,198,795 B1
• Filed: 03/19/1999
• Issued: 03/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Citco Building Co., Heimann Systems GmbH
• Original Assignee: Heimann Systems GmbH
• Inventors: Naumann, Dirk, Henkel, Rainer, Beneke, Knut
• Primary Examiner(s): BRUCE, DAVID VERNON
• Application Number:
  US09/272,302
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• Field of Search: 378/53, 378/57, 378/62
• US Class Current: 378/57
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 5/224 Multiple energy techniques using one type of radiation, e.g. X-rays of different energies

Abstract

An image processing method for recognizing a material contained in an article includes the following steps: transilluminating the article with X-rays; generating, by an X-ray detector, signals representing the X-rays passing through the article; applying the signals to a computer system as continuous image data; subdividing the image data into defined zone-wise image strips; briefly storing the image strips in an image data memory; and determining the material from the image strips before a completion of the transilluminating step.

Claims

1. An image processing method for recognizing a material contained in an article comprising the following steps:

(a) transilluminating the article with X-rays;

(b) generating, by an X-ray detector, signals representing the X-rays passing through the article;

(c) applying the signals to a computer system as continuous image data;

(d) subdividing the image data into defined zone-wise image strips;

(e) briefly storing the image strips in an image data memory; and

(f) determining the material from the image strips before a completion of step (a).

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the steps of overlappingly connecting said image strips with one another and processing twice the zones of overlap.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of stringing adjoining image strips together if the material is larger than a single image strip.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein step (d) comprises the step of forming each said image strip such that an image strip width is composed of 90-110 image lines.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the number of image lines is 100.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining a plurality of materials within at least one image strip and filtering out already determined materials between the image lines of the image strips.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying the kind of the determined materials by a comparison with characteristic data stored in a memory.