Patents by Inventor Ken Hirooka

Ken Hirooka has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8406376
    Abstract: An air grid is constructed such that absorbing foil strips, which absorb scattered X-rays, are arranged in a direction parallel to the direction of rows of detecting elements, and that spacing between adjacent shadows among shadows of the absorbing foil strips formed on a flat panel X-ray detector (FPD) as a result of the absorbing foil strips absorbing X-rays is larger than spacing between pixels forming an X-ray image. An image data acquiring unit, a transmittance smoothing unit, a grid data acquiring unit, a shadowless pixel calculating unit, a shadow total quantity calculating unit, a transmittance correcting unit and an X-ray image acquiring unit are provided to remove the shadows with high accuracy by using corrected image data (X-ray transmittances) which constitutes a profile of shadows occurring at an actual time of X-ray imaging of a subject.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Shimadzu Corporation
    Inventor: Ken Hirooka
  • Patent number: 8160202
    Abstract: A radiographic apparatus includes a radiation source for emitting radiation, a radiation detecting device with detecting elements arranged two-dimensionally, a radiation grid with absorbing foil strips for removing scattered radiation, a physical quantity acquiring device for calculating predetermined physical quantities based on outputs of the radiation detecting device, a physical quantity map generating device for generating a physical quantity map by mapping the predetermined physical quantities, and a physical quantity map smoothing device for smoothing the physical quantities arranged on the physical quantity map in a direction of extension of the absorbing foil strips, thereby to generate an average value map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Shimadzu Corporation
    Inventors: Ken Hirooka, Shouji Kuwabara
  • Publication number: 20110158388
    Abstract: An air grid is constructed such that absorbing foil strips, which absorb scattered X-rays, are arranged in a direction parallel to the direction of rows of detecting elements, and that spacing between adjacent shadows among shadows of the absorbing foil strips formed on a flat panel X-ray detector (FPD) as a result of the absorbing foil strips absorbing X-rays is larger than spacing between pixels forming an X-ray image. An image data acquiring unit, a transmittance smoothing unit, a grid data acquiring unit, a shadowless pixel calculating unit, a shadow total quantity calculating unit, a transmittance correcting unit and an X-ray image acquiring unit are provided to remove the shadows with high accuracy by using corrected image data (X-ray transmittances) which constitutes a profile of shadows occurring at an actual time of X-ray imaging of a subject.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2010
    Publication date: June 30, 2011
    Inventor: Ken Hirooka
  • Publication number: 20100272236
    Abstract: A radiographic apparatus includes a radiation source for emitting radiation, a radiation detecting device with detecting elements arranged two-dimensionally, a radiation grid with absorbing foil strips for removing scattered radiation, a physical quantity acquiring device for calculating predetermined physical quantities based on outputs of the radiation detecting device, a physical quantity map generating device for generating a physical quantity map by mapping the predetermined physical quantities, and a physical quantity map smoothing device for smoothing the physical quantities arranged on the physical quantity map in a direction of extension of the absorbing foil strips, thereby to generate an average value map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2010
    Publication date: October 28, 2010
    Inventors: Ken Hirooka, Shouji Kuwabara