Abstract: A system for characterizing the material of an object scanned via a dual-energy computed tomography scanner is provided. The system generates photoelectric and Compton sinograms based on a photoelectric-Compton decomposition of low-energy and high-energy sinograms generated from the scan and based on a scanner spectral response model. The system generates a Compton volume with Compton attenuation coefficients from the Compton sinogram and a photoelectric volume with photoelectric attenuation coefficients from the photoelectric sinogram. The system generates an estimated effective atomic number for a voxel and an estimated electron density for the voxel from the Compton attenuation coefficient and photoelectric coefficient for the voxel and scanner-specific parameters. The system then characterizes the material within the voxel based on the estimated effective atomic number and estimated electron density for the voxel.

Abstract: A system for characterizing the material of an object scanned via a dual-energy computed tomography scanner is provided. The system generates photoelectric and Compton sinograms based on a photoelectric-Compton decomposition of low-energy and high-energy sinograms generated from the scan and based on a scanner spectral response model. The system generates a Compton volume with Compton attenuation coefficients from the Compton sinogram and a photoelectric volume with photoelectric attenuation coefficients from the photoelectric sinogram. The system generates an estimated effective atomic number for a voxel and an estimated electron density for the voxel from the Compton attenuation coefficient and photoelectric coefficient for the voxel and scanner-specific parameters. The system then characterizes the material within the voxel based on the estimated effective atomic number and estimated electron density for the voxel.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for optimizing computer tomography images obtained from any of a number of different standard computer tomography scanning devices. The apparatus and method incorporate computer-aided design data for an object being scanned into a system for establishing nominal scanning beam intensities and nominal scanning detector sensitivities that ultimately compensate for non-anomalous variations in beam path characteristics. Particularly adapted for optimizing scan images on objects with large length-to-width ratios, the present invention identifies significant deviations from some normal baseline beam path in advance of a scan and modifies beam intensity and detector sensitivity to bring the projected beam into a nominal range. Thereafter, deviations from this referenced nominal beam can be better identified as anomalies within the object being scanned, that are of interest.