Eastman-kodak Company

Carestream Health, Inc.

Michael K Rogers

Xiaohui Wang

Anthony Dirisio

David P Trauernicht

David H Foos

John C Boutet

Christopher M Muir

Sreeram Dhurjaty

Michael D Heath

Douglas O Hall

James R Kircher

Michael B Brandt

Anna L Hrycin

Barry H Keys

Thomas S Albrecht

Martin E Trzcinski

Lynn M Fletcher-Heath

Michael J Poccia

David K Bischoff

Robert W Apps

James Doran

Eric L Schmitt

Andrew M Dziel

An X-ray tube has a housing enclosing a vacuum chamber. There is a primary field-emission cathode within the vacuum chamber, a secondary cathode within the vacuum chamber, spaced apart from the primary cathode, and an anode target within the vacuum chamber.

Field-emission X-ray source

A carrier for transporting a section of flexible phosphor imaging medium through a scanner has a flexible support having a front surface and a back surface, at least one releasable retaining element coupled to the flexible support for holding a first surface of the section of flexible phosphor imaging medium against the front surface of the flexible support, and a flexible frame extending at least partially along the perimeter of the flexible support and having a thickness above the front surface of the flexible support that is substantially the same as the thickness of the section of flexible phosphor imaging medium that is held against the front surface.

Scanner transport carrier for flexible phosphor sheet

A method for image quality assessment of a digital radiography system extracts and isolates one or more individual targets from a phantom image, then obtains operator responses by displaying each isolated individual target and recording a corresponding operator response related to image appearance for each isolated individual target. The accumulated operator responses are stored to obtain the image quality assessment.

Assessment of radiographic systems and operators using task-based phantom

A phantom for use in measuring characteristics of a digital radiography imaging system has at least one substrate having a patterned foil layer. The pattern in the foil layer being defined by a plurality of apertures within which the substrate is exposed.

Phantom for radiological system calibration

A method for erasing noise and a residual image in a storage phosphor, comprising: reading out an exposed storage phosphor which is transported in a first direction by scanning the storage phosphor in a line scan direction perpendicular to the first direction, with a reciprocating stimulating beam of light which causes the storage phosphor to emit light in a first frequency range, the beam of light being suppressed during retrace; erasing the storage phosphor after the reading out with light of a second frequency range and additionally with light of the first frequency range during retrace when the stimulating light beam is supressed.

Storage phosphor erase

A light collector and detector for collecting and detecting light emitted, reflected or transmitted by a scanned information medium, comprising: a planar mirror assembly for extending the width of a scanned information medium and for disposition substantially perpendicular thereto, the planar mirror assembly having a lower edge adjacent to the scanned medium and an upper edge spaced from the lower edge; first and second pyramidal mirrors located side by side facing the planar mirror, the pyramidal mirrors having respective upper edges spaced from the upper edge of the planar mirror and respective lower edges spaced from the lower edge of the planar mirror, thereby to form aligned slots for the passage of a scanning beam of light to a medium to be scanned and for allowing light emitted by, reflected from, or transmitted by the scanned medium to enter the collector; wherein the first pyramidal mirror has a first aperture in an apex region thereof and wherein the second pyramidal mirror has a second aperture in an apex region thereof; a first photodetector having a light receiving face coextensive with the aperture of the first pyramidal mirror; a second photodetector having a lightreceiving face coextensive with the aperture of the second pyramidal mirror; wherein light from the scanned medium and reflected by the collector mirrors are received by the light receiving faces of the first and second photodetectors which generate electrical signals in response thereto.

Collector design for computed radiography

A method of forming a composite digital image comprising: providing 1-N digital images formed from 1-N contiguous segments of a larger radiographic image recorded in 1-N overlapping storage phosphor screens wherein N is equal to or greater than 2 and wherein the image content in the overlapped region of contiguous images is the same, and the end edge of a screen nearest an x-ray source is present in both contiguous images; selecting a pair of contiguous digital images, wherein one image is closer to said x-ray source than said other image; correcting for any geometric distortion if applicable in said pair of digital images based on the distance between x-ray source and said storage phosphor screen; determining any rotational displacement and any vertical displacement between said pair of digital images by matching said end edge of said one image present in said pair of images correcting for image orientation if applicable based on any said rotational displacement; determining any horizontal displacement between said pair of digital images by correlating the image content in said overlapping regions of said pair of digital images; stitching said pair of digital images together to form a larger composite digital image along said one image edge based on any said horizontal and vertical displacement; and repeating said correcting for any geometric distortion to said stitching with the larger composite image and the next consecutive overlapping digital image until all N digital images are stitched together to form a full composite image.

Method for stitching partial radiation images to reconstruct a full image

A computed radiography (CR) reader comprising: an image plate loading and unloading station for receiving in a vertical orientation a CR cassette including a light tight cassette shell and an image plate supported by an extrusion closing off said shell, said image plate storing a latent radiographic image, a scanning station located below said loading and unloading station at which said image plate is scanned, and an image plate transport assembly for removing said image plate from said cassette shell and for vertically transporting said image plate past said scanning station while said image plate is being removed from said cassette.

CR reader with vertical scanning

A storage phosphor reader comprising: a receiving station for receiving a cassette containing a removable storage phosphor; a movable extraction mechanism for extracting and replacing a storage phosphor contained in a received cassette; a bar code located on the cassette/storage phosphor, the bar code including dimension data of a storage phosphor contained in the cassette; a bar code reader located at the receiving station for reading the bar code dimension data on a received storage phosphor cassette; and control means for controlling the movement of the extraction mechanism relative to a received storage phosphor cassette as a function of the read dimension data.

Storage phosphor reader using bar code for cassette extraction and

A health care information input apparatus comprising:

Remote health care information input apparatus

A calibration technique for a storage phosphor reader which calibrates the storage phosphor reader to the exposure value of the x-ray source measured at the time that the storage phosphor to be read is exposed.

Storage phosphor reader calibration technique

A calibration technique for a storage phosphor reader which accomplishes the following; a) finds the leading edge of the storage phosphor being read by the reader; b) finds the front and rear edges of the storage phosphor in order to adjust the length of the line scan to the dimension of the storage phosphor in the line scan direction; c) verifies that the photodetectors of the reader are functioning; d) adjusts each photodetector signal channel to the appropriate gain; and e) generates a correction signal to correct nonuniformities of the photodetector signal output.

Laser imaging apparatus includes a laser which produces a laser beam. An image media is scanned with a laser beam in a raster pattern to produce a scanned image. A photodetector converts the scanned image into an image signal. An amplifier amplifies the image signal and has varying gain. A control circuit controls the laser beam scanning device to scan image media of different sizes with laser beam raster patterns of different sizes. The control circuit includes detectors for detecting the size of the image media. The control circuit varies the gain of the amplifier as a function of the detected size of the scanned image media.

Growing community of inventors

Mendon, NY, United States of America

Michael K Rogers