Vivid Technologies, Inc.

John O Tortora

Kristoph D Krug

Richard Franklin Eilbert

Paul J Hurd

Michael P Ellenbogen

Richard Bijjani

A multiview X-ray based inspection system detects contraband such as explosives, weapons, drugs and money in packages such as baggage. Each bag moves through at least three stationary, fan-shaped beams of x-rays that are in parallel planes spaced from each other in the direction of bag travel, to produce three projection views of the bag taken from different angles. These projection views are processed to extract two-dimensional outlines of likely individual objects in the bag, and the two-dimensional outlines are matched between different projection views to extract three-dimensional outlines of likely objects in the bag. The system uses these three-dimensional outlines to estimate effective atomic numbers and mass densities of material in these objects, and then to determine the presence of likely contraband in the baggage by testing these estimates against windows in a multi-dimensional space in which one dimension is effective atomic number and another is mass density. The typical windows correspond to known contraband materials. The system can derive measurements from additional modalities such as nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) for use in conjunction with the x-ray measurements in finding likely contraband.

Multiview x-ray based system for detecting contraband such as in baggage

An inspection system for detecting a specific material of interest in items of baggage or packages includes a multi-view X-ray inspection probe and one or more material sensitive probes. The multi-view X-ray inspection probe employs X-ray radiation transmitted through or scattered from an examined item to identify a suspicious region inside the item. An interface is used to receive from said X-ray inspection probe X-ray data providing spatial information about the suspicious region and to provide this information to a selected material sensitive probe. The material sensitive probe then acquires material specific information about the previously-identified suspicious region and provides it to a computer. The computer uses a high level detection algorithm to identify presence of the specific material in the suspicious region. The material sensitive probe may be a directional probe such as a coherent scatter probe, or a non-directional probe such as a Compton scatter probe or an NQR probe. The detection algorithm can automatically employ the different probes operating in a preferred geometry. The inspection system may also include a graphical interface and an operator interface that enable interactive communication with the detection algorithm.

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Westford, MA, United States of America

John O Tortora