A system and method is provided for performing material decomposition using a computed tomography (CT) system. The method includes acquiring CT imaging data of an object including data subsets corresponding to at least two different energy spectral bins and using the CT imaging data at each of the at least two different energy spectral bins to form a series of equations for basis material decomposition. The method also includes using a general physical constraint, which quantifies how each basis material in the object is mixed together to form the object, within the series of equations. The method also includes determining at least one basis material density of the object using the physical constraint and the CT imaging data and generating an image of the object using the CT imaging data and the mass densities of at least one basis material.

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.

A radiographic inspection apparatus acquires a first image and a second image; receives an input of selection of a region of interest in the first image or the second image; specifies respective first pixel values of a plurality of first pixels and respective second pixel values of a plurality of second pixels corresponding to the plurality of first pixels, and calculates a thickness correction function by approximating a relationship between the first pixel values and the second pixel values; calculates a plurality of representative data each of which is a combination of a first representative value and a second representative value on the basis of the respective first pixel values of the plurality of first pixels and the respective second pixel values of the plurality of second pixels; and calculates an evaluation coefficient based on a correlation between the thickness correction function and the plurality of calculated representative data.

A radiation imaging apparatus comprises an image generating unit configured to generate a material characteristic image by using a plurality of radiation images of different radiation energy levels; an evaluation information calculation unit configured to calculate evaluation information which indicates a correlation between a plurality of material characteristic images; and a scattered ray amount estimation unit configured to estimate, based on the evaluation information, an amount of scattered rays included in the plurality of radiation images.

A surgical specimen imaging system includes a micro-X-ray computed tomography (CT) unit for CT imaging of the specimen and a structured light imaging (SLI) unit for optical imaging at multiple wavelengths, multiple phase offsets, and multiple structured-light pattern periods including unstructured light. The system's image processing unit receives CT and optical images and is configured by firmware in memory to co-register the images and process the optical images to determine texture at multiple subimages of the optical images, determined textures forming a texture map. The texture map is processed by a machine-learning-based classifier to determine a tissue type map of the specimen, and the tissue type map is processed with the CT images to give a 3D tissue-type map. In embodiments, the firmware extracts optical properties including scattering and absorption at multiple wavelengths and the classifier also uses these properties in generating the tissue type map.

An x-ray mass flow rate sensor uses a low density polymer pipe, an x-ray source, and an x-ray detector. The polymer pipe has a low density (less than 2.8 SG) and a high pressure rating (greater than 5 ksi). By using a low density polymer pipe, the sensor is able to use an x-ray source that does not require a linear accelerator and is less than or equal to 450 kV. The x-ray source and the x-ray detector are mounted on opposite sides of the polymer pipe to form a detection area that passes through the polymer pipe. A real-time calibration of the sensor is performed by detecting gray level values in a calibration region of the detection area for two reference materials placed in the detection area. The sensor may additionally include a mechanical flow rate sensor with a plurality of pistons with springs of varying spring constants.

A data processing device is applied to an X-ray system which irradiates an object with continuous X-rays and processes data detected by a photon counting X-ray detection device. An n-dimensional vector corresponding to each of “n” energy regions set a spectrum of the continuous X-rays is calculated for each detector pixel based on the data. For each search region virtually set up based on one or more detector pixels, the n-dimensional vectors at the detector pixels belonging to each search pixel are mutually vector added in the n-dimensional space. The n-dimensional representative vector representing each of the plurality of search regions is calculated. Based on the representative vectors and an unit region having a desired size virtually set in a material space with coordinate information of the degree of attenuation of the X-rays, the information indicating the amount, type and properties of the material of the object is obtained.

The present invention provides a device and a method for image reconstruction at different X-ray energies that make it possible to achieve image reconstruction with higher accuracy. A device for image reconstruction at different X-ray energies includes: an X-ray source 1 that irradiates a specimen to be imaged 2 with X-rays; an energy-dispersive detector 4 that detects a characteristic X-ray emitted from the specimen to be imaged 2; a signal processing means that quantifies the peak of the characteristic X-ray detected by the detector 4; and an image reconstruction means that reconstructs an image on the basis of a signal from the signal processing means.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for X-ray phase contrast imaging. The method comprises the following steps: from the measured phase gradient and overall attenuation information, an electron density is computed; the contribution p.sub.c of the Compton scattering to the overall attenuation is estimated from the electron density; the contribution pp of the photo-electric absorption to the overall attenuation is estimated from the overall attenuation and the contribution p.sub.c; the values p.sub.c and p.sub.p are used to reconstruct a Compton image and a photo-electric image; by linear combination of these two images, a monochromatic image at a desired energy is obtained.

Methods and system for decomposing a high-energy dual-energy X-ray CT material are disclosed. In the method, two types of effect such as Compton effect and electron pairing effect which dominates are reserved and the influence of the other effect such a photoelectric effect is removed so as to improve the accuracy of the material decomposition. The unique advantage of the present disclosure is to effectively remove the error of the calculated atomic number Z due to directly selecting two effects during processes of material decomposition in the conventional dual-energy CT method. This may greatly improve the accuracy of dual-energy CT identification of the material, and it is important to improve the conventional dual-use CT imaging system applications, such as clinical therapy, security inspection, industrial non-destructive testing, customs anti-smuggling and other fields.