An imaging process for industrial equipment is described using gamma-ray or X-ray profiling techniques and tomographic image reconstruction, wherein (a) a radiation emission subsystem with at least one radiation source emits that passes through an industrial equipment to be analyzed by imaging; (b) a radiation detection subsystem with at least one radiation detector detects the energy of the radiation emitted by the radiation emission subsystem that has passed through said industrial equipment; (c) processing and imaging means receive and evaluate the radiation samples detected by the radiation detection subsystem and generate a tomogram of the analyzed region, selecting the radiation samples detected with an energy value within a range of values corresponding to a maximum defined scattering angle of the radiation emitted by the radiation source, and generating a tomographic reconstruction of images of the industrial equipment based on these selected radiation samples.

Disclosed is a method for determining physical properties of a test sample using a spectrometric detector with at least three channels, consisting of: performing measurements in each of the channels on the test sample, calculating variables, each formed from a combination of measurements of different channels, and applying a weighting and bias matrix to the variables, enabling the investigated physical properties of the test sample to be determined.

A method of performing x-ray spectroscopy surface material analysis of a region of interest of a sample with an evaluation system that includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) column and an x-ray detector, the method comprising: identifying an element expected to be within the region of interest; selecting a landing energy for a charged particle beam generated by the SEM column based on the identified element; scanning the region of interest with a charged particle beam set to the selected landing energy; detecting x-rays generated while the region of interest is scanned by the charged particle beam; and generating a two-dimensional image of the scanned region of interest based on the detected x-rays.

A method of performing x-ray spectroscopy surface material analysis of a region of interest of a sample with an evaluation system that includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) column and an x-ray detector, the method comprising: identifying an element expected to be within the region of interest; selecting a landing energy for a charged particle beam generated by the SEM column based on the identified element; scanning the region of interest with a charged particle beam set to the selected landing energy; detecting x-rays generated while the region of interest is scanned by the charged particle beam; and generating a two-dimensional image of the scanned region of interest based on the detected x-rays.

Methods for quantitatively separating x-ray images of a subject having three or more component materials into component images using spectral imaging or multiple-energy imaging with 2D radiographic hardware implemented with scatter removal methods. The multiple-energy system may be extended by implementing DRC multiple energy decomposition and K-edge subtraction imaging methods.

The present disclosure discloses a method of substance identification of an item to be inspected using a multi-energy-spectrum X-ray imaging system, the method comprising: acquiring a transparency related vector consisting of transparency values of the item to be inspected in N energy regions, wherein N is greater than 2; calculating distances between the transparency related vector and transparency related vectors stored in the system consisting of N transparency mean values of multiple kinds of items with multiple thicknesses in the N energy regions; and identifying the item to be inspected as the item corresponding to the minimum distance. The present disclosure is based on a multi-energy-spectrum X-ray imaging system, and proposes a method of substance identification by analyzing the multi-energy-spectrum substance identification issue. Compared with the conventional dual-energy X-ray system, the multi-spectrum imaging can significantly improve the system's ability to identify substances in theory, especially in the field of security applications. The improvement of substance identification is important for contraband inspection, such as, drugs, explosives.

Disclosed herein is a system and method, which utilize primary beam modulation to enable single-scan dual-energy CT (DECT) on a conventional CT scanner. An attenuation sheet with a spatially-varying pattern is placed between the x-ray source and the imaged object. During the CT scan, the modulator selectively hardens the x-ray beam at specific detector locations. Thus, this method simultaneously acquires high and low energy data at each projection angle. High and low energy CT images can then reconstructed from the projections via an iterative CT reconstruction algorithm, which accounts for the spatial modulation of the projected x-rays.

A higher accuracy beam hardening correction with a low calculation load is performed with objects whose elements have a wider range of effective atomic numbers Z.sub.eff, thereby contributing to presentation of more quantitative X-ray images. Of two or more X-ray energy bins, two X-ray bins are selected to normalize X-ray attenuation amount μt in those bins such that one or more normalized X-ray attenuation amounts are obtained at each pixel areas. From reference information indicating a theoretical relationship of correspondence between the normalized X-ray attenuation amounts and effective atomic numbers of elements, one ore more effective atomic numbers are estimated every pixel area. Among the one or more effective atomic numbers (Z.sub.High, Z.sub.Low) and an effective atomic number (Zm) preset for the beam hardening correction, two or more atomic numbers are subjected to their equality determination.

The invention relates to a method for characterizing a sample, by estimating a plurality of characteristic thicknesses, each being associated with a calibration material, comprising the following steps:

acquiring an energy spectrum (S.sup.ech) transmitted through this sample, located in an X and/or gamma spectral band, naled spectrum transmitted through the sample;

for each spectrum of a plurality of calibration spectra (S.sup.base(L.sub.k; L.sub.l)), calculating a likelihood from said calibration spectrum (S.sup.base(L.sub.k; L.sub.l)), and from the spectrum transmitted through the sample (S.sup.ech), each calibration spectrum (S.sup.base(L.sub.k; L.sub.l)) corresponding to the energy spectrum transmitted through a stack of gauge blocks, each formed of a known thickness of a calibration material;

estimating the characteristic thicknesses (L.sub.1, L.sub.2) associated with the sample according to the criterion of maximum likelihood.

A material characterization system and method for characterizing a stream of material emanating from a material identification, exploration, extraction or processing activity, the system including a source of incident radiation configured to irradiate the stream of material in an irradiation region, one or more detectors adapted to detect radiation emanating from within or passing through the stream of material as a result of the irradiation by the incident radiation and thereby produce a detection signal, and one or more digital processors configured to process the detection signal to characterise the stream of material, wherein the source of incident radiation and the one or more detectors are adapted to be disposed relative to the stream of material so as to irradiate the stream of material and detect the radiation emanating from within or passing through the stream as the stream passes through the irradiation region.