Imaging, data acquisition, data transmission, and data distribution methods and systems for high data rate tomographic X-ray scanners

• US 9,747,705 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2015
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rapiscan Systems Incorporated (OSI Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Rapiscan Systems Incorporated (OSI Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Morton, Edward James
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMAS, COURTNEY D
• Application Number:
  US14/848,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20160232689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/4028 resulting in acquisition of views from substantially different positions, e.g. EBCT
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/4085 Cone-beams
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/542 involving control of exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2223/419 computed tomograph
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2223/612 biological material
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 23/046 using tomography, e.g. computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/17 Circuit arrangements not adapted to a particular type of detector pulse-selection circuits H03K, G01R
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/2985 In depth localisation, e.g. using positron emitters; Tomographic imaging (longitudinal and transverse section imaging; apparatus for radiation diagnosis sequentially in different planes, steroscopic radiation diagnosis); using external radiation sources A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/005 Specific pre-processing for tomographic reconstruction, e.g. calibration, source positioning, rebinning, scatter correction, retrospective gating
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2211/421 Filtered back projection [FBP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

The present invention is an X-ray system having a source-detector module, which includes X-ray sources and detectors, for scanning an object being inspected, a scan engine coupled to the source-detector module for collecting scan data from the source detector module, an image reconstruction engine coupled to the scan engine for converting the collected scan data into one or more X-ray images, and a scan controller coupled with at least one of the source detector module, the scan engine, and the image reconstruction engine optimize operations of the X-ray system.

Claims

1. An X-ray system comprising:

a plurality of detectors for generating raw X-ray data;

a scan engine coupled to the plurality of detectors for receiving the raw X-ray data and generating calibrated X-ray data;

an image reconstruction engine coupled to the scan engine for converting the calibrated X-ray data into one or more processed X-ray images; and

a scan controller coupled with said plurality of detectors and at least one of said scan engine or image reconstruction engine, wherein said scan controller receives said raw X-ray data and dynamically modulates processing of at least one of said raw X-ray data by said scan engine or said calibrated X-ray data by said image reconstruction engine, wherein the scan controller dynamically modulates the processing of said raw X-ray data or calibrated X-ray data by analyzing the raw X-ray data or calibrated X-ray data and identifying one or more regions comprising required information.

2. The X-ray system of claim 1 further comprising a user input wherein said user input receives control information from a user and wherein said scan controller uses said control information to dynamically modulate processing of at least one of said raw X-ray data by said scan engine or processing of said calibrated X-ray data by said image reconstruction engine.

3. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein said raw X-ray data is at least one of transmission data and backscatter data.

4. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein said scan controller is configured to direct the scan engine to increase a scan rate for a first region and decrease a scan rate for a second region, wherein the first region has a higher rate of change of information than the second region.

5. The X-ray system of claim 1 further comprising a data visualization engine coupled to the image reconstruction engine for rendering the processed X-ray images to a human readable screen.

6. The X-ray system of claim 1 further comprising one or more storage devices coupled to one or more of the plurality of detectors, the scan engine, and the image reconstruction engine for storing data obtained from the plurality of detectors, the scan engine, and the image reconstruction engine.

7. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein said scan controller determines a rate of change of information in a scan direction by subtracting each newly generated sinogram from a previously generated sinogram and wherein said scan controller, based upon said rate of change of information, directs the scan engine to change a scan rate for a region containing said information.

8. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein the one or more regions comprising required information is a subset of all regions detected by said plurality of detectors.

9. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein the scan controller issues instructions to the scan engine to process raw X-ray data only from detectors corresponding to the one or more regions comprising required information.

10. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein the scan controller issues instructions to the image reconstruction engine to process calibrated X-ray data only from detectors corresponding to the one or more regions comprising required information.

11. The X-ray system of claim 1 wherein the image reconstruction engine is configured to generate a variable resolution image, wherein a part of the variable resolution image with lower complexity has a lower resolution and a part of the variable resolution image with higher complexity has a higher resolution.

12. An X-ray system comprising:

a source of radiation having a scan rotation;

a plurality of detectors for generating raw X-ray data;

a scan engine coupled to the plurality of detectors for receiving the raw X-ray data and generating calibrated X-ray data;

an image reconstruction engine coupled to the scan engine for converting the calibrated X-ray data into one or more processed X-ray images; and

a scan controller coupled with said plurality of detectors and at least one of said scan engine or image reconstruction engine, wherein said scan controller receives said raw X-ray data and dynamically modulates at least one of said source of radiation or scan engine based on said raw X-ray data wherein the scan controller is configured to direct the scan engine to increase a scan rate for a first region and decrease a scan rate for a second region, wherein the first region has a higher rate of change of information than the second region.

13. The X-ray system of claim 12 wherein the scan controller issues instructions to said scan engine to modify a spatial resolution of a scan based upon said raw X-ray data.

14. The X-ray system of claim 13 wherein said spatial resolution is modified by generating a first spatial resolution in a scan direction and a second spatial resolution in a scan plane, the first spatial resolution being different than the second spatial resolution.

15. The X-ray system of claim 12 wherein the scan controller issues instructions to said scan engine to generate a first resolution in a scan and a second resolution in the scan wherein said first resolution and said second resolution are different.

16. The X-ray system of claim 15 wherein said scan engine transmits said scan having the first resolution and the second resolution to the image reconstruction engine.

17. The X-ray system of claim 16 wherein said image reconstruction engine generates image data having variable resolution based on said scan having the first resolution and the second resolution.

18. The X-ray system of claim 16 wherein said image reconstruction engine generates image data having at least one area of coarse pixilation and at least one area of high granularity pixelation.

19. The X-ray system of claim 12 wherein the scan controller issues instructions to at least one of said scan engine or source of radiation to control a rotation rate of said source of radiation.

20. The X-ray system of claim 12 wherein said scan controller determines a rate of change of information in a scan direction by subtracting each newly generated sinogram from a previously generated sinogram and wherein, based upon said rate of change of information, said scan controller directs the scan engine to change a scan rate for a region containing said information.