Array Camera System for Large-Format X-Ray Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current large-format X-ray cameras, particularly those using refractive optics, suffer from low light sensitivity and high light loss due to the need for significant optical reduction, limiting their application in high-resolution, high-speed imaging of large objects, such as automobile wheels, where fast image repetition and low artifacts are required.
Innovation Solution
A camera system comprising an array of optical individual cameras with higher individual resolution than the overall resolution, where digital images are processed to correct for alignment inaccuracies and parameter variations, and adjacent pixels are combined to achieve the desired overall resolution, reducing edges and artifacts, and utilizing refractive optics with minimal reduction, along with analog binning and digital pixel combination for enhanced sensitivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If refractive optics are used to capture a large-format scintillator screen with a single optical camera, then the imaging area is large, but the light sensitivity is very low due to significant light loss in the optical reduction process
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the large-format scintillator screen into multiple smaller regions, each captured by an individual optical camera in an array. This segmentation allows each camera to image only a small portion of the screen with minimal optical reduction, thereby maintaining high light sensitivity while collectively covering a large imaging area.
2Area of moving object
If refractive optics are used to reduce the screen area by a large factor to fit it on a small light sensor, then the imaging area is reduced to match the sensor size, but the light sensitivity decreases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single camera with strong refractive optics to reduce a large screen to a small sensor, the patent segments the screen into multiple small regions that can be imaged by multiple cameras with weak or no optical reduction, preserving light sensitivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the images from multiple individual cameras to create a complete image of the entire scintillator screen. This merging approach allows the system to achieve large-format imaging without requiring each individual camera to perform large optical reduction, thus maintaining high light sensitivity.
3Device complexity
If a single optical camera is used to capture the entire scintillator screen, then the device complexity is low, but the light sensitivity is insufficient for high-resolution imaging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the imaging task across multiple cameras arranged in an array, where each camera captures a small portion of the scintillator screen. This segmentation enables high light sensitivity for each individual camera while the collective system achieves comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple individual camera images are merged by an image processing device to create a complete high-resolution image of the entire screen. This combining process maintains high light sensitivity by processing images from multiple high-sensitivity cameras rather than relying on a single camera with compromised sensitivity.
4Area of stationary object
If semiconductor detectors are used for large-format imaging, then the imaging area is large, but the image repetition rate is low and image lag occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large-format imaging task across multiple optical cameras that can operate at high frame rates. Each camera in the array captures its portion of the image independently and rapidly, enabling high image repetition rates while maintaining large-format coverage through the collective output of the camera array.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach significantly increases light sensitivity and image repetition frequency, allowing for high-speed, artifact-free imaging of large formats with reduced data management, suitable for industrial applications like quality control and security screening.
Implementation Method 1
The cameras for optically capturing a screen, for example a scintillator screen, are used in digital radioscopy
Implementation Method 2
For applications requiring a large-format image, usually refractive optics are used
Data Source
AI summary
A camera for optically capturing a screen, wherein the screen has an area and wherein a predetermined overall resolution is provided for the optical capture, comprises a camera support with an array of camera mounts, an array of optical individual cameras as well as an image processing device for processing digital individual images of the array of optical individual cameras to generate the optical capture of the screen with the predetermined overall resolution. The image processing device is effective to reduce a correction of the individual images with regard to alignment inaccuracies and/or parameter variations, wherein for correction purposes a correction resolution is used, which is higher than the overall resolution, and wherein for every individual camera an individual correction rule is used for the correction. After the correction has been performed, the corrected overall image is brought to the predetermined overall resolution by combining adjacent pixels. Thereby, with inexpensive individual cameras, an image of a large-format screen is obtained efficiently, inexpensively and with little artifacts.