Patent Application
20130277568
The invention relates to physics and material engineering, particularly to methods for research of internal structure and/or contents of an object, obtaining an image of the object, and/or the internal structure, and/or the contents, and devices for executing thereof.
The present invention can find useful applications in systems for research different objects, analyzing properties and qualities of the objects, and for remote control of the objects.
Nowadays, X-ray imaging is often employed for research of an object's internal structure without opening or dissembling thereof.
This however has a number of essential drawbacks. First, it's necessary to position an X-ray source on one side of the object, whereas an X-ray receiver is positioned at the other side of the object, which makes it impossible obtaining images of large size objects, as well as objects being parts of other objects (e.g. wheels and bumpers of transportation vehicles, etc.).
Further, some objects cannot be researched by X-ray imaging in principal (e.g. those located inside building walls, screened by steel sheets), or those that can be damaged by X-ray imaging (e.g. photo materials).
Besides, an important problem is a reduction of radiation exposure dose of the object, as well as of surrounding objects and personnel.
The present invention is intended for solving—the problem of creation of methods for research of internal structure and/or contents of an object, obtaining images of the object and/or its internal structure, and objects being parts of other objects; and—the problem of creation of methods for research of objects not accessible for through imaging and an essentially reduction of radiation exposure dose of objects.
The closest prior art document is Euro-Asian Patent No. 011316 titled “Method and device for obtaining information on internal structure of an object, and method for creation of imaging objects” herein further called a ‘prototype’. According to those methods, an object is irradiated by a movable narrow beam of penetrating radiation, containing an approximately equal number of quantas, and a reflected portion of the beam is registered from each irradiated section of a researched object, which portion is registered as a number of quantas, thereby obtaining a digital image of the object's internal structure.
However, such method possesses certain shortcomings, and does not adequately solve the aforementioned problems, e.g. sometimes operates with excessively great number of quantas and does not allow properly minimize the radiation doses of an object, as well as unsatisfactory solves the problem of obtaining information on a movable object, since envisages movements of the irradiating beam, which movements reduce the quality of obtained information in case of movable object.
The inventive method for research of internal structure and/or contents of an object solves the aforementioned problems and eliminates the prototype's shortcomings. It comprises the steps of:
a) the object and a source of penetrating radiation move in relation to each other, while the source irradiates the object by a beam of penetrating radiation of an arbitrary form, wherein the beam contains a number of quantas depending upon the time interval, during which the object is being irradiated, and the number is calculated at a predetermined rule that can be changed in different moments of time, or/and for various objects being researched.
b) during the irradiation, and immediately after thereof, a portion of the beam reflected from each irradiated object section, and this portion is registered as a number of quantas, thereby obtaining a numerical-quantum representation of the object's internal structure and contents.
Another problem intended to be solved by the present invention is a method of obtaining an image of an object and/or its internal structure, and/or its contents. This method envisages that, for each point of the object's image, its internal structure, and its contents, a function is computed, which function depends upon a numerical-quantum representation of the internal structure and contents, as well as upon the rule of dependency of the quantas number in the beam and the character of movement of the object and the radiation source in relation to each other.
It is expedient to implement the above-described methods in a system (incorporated in at least one device) comprising: a radiation source, a receiver-gauge of reflected quantas, a memory unit, a unit for obtaining a digital representation of the object's internal structure and/or contents, a unit for obtaining an image of the object's internal structure and/or contents, a unit for display and visualization of the object's internal structure and/or contents.
It is expedient to arrange the radiation source and the receiver-gauge immovable, and the researched object movable in relation thereto.
Optionally, it is expedient to arrange the researched object immovable, and the radiation source and the receptor-gauge movable in relation thereto.
Besides, it is expedient to consider one or several elements of the inventive system, selected from a group consisting of the radiation source, the receptor-gauge of reflected quantas, the memory unit, the unit for obtaining a digital representation, the unit for display and visualization, incorporated in one device.
Also, one or several elements of the inventive system, selected from a group consisting of the radiation source, the receptor-gauge of reflected quantas, the memory unit, the unit for obtaining a digital representation, the unit for display and visualization, designed separately, but the system is incorporated in at least two devices.
The claimed methods and the system for executing thereof provide the following:
The present invention will be described in detail herein below showing a system of non-destructive control based on reflected radiation, with references to
The system of non-destructive control in reflected radiation of variable intenseness, schematically illustrated on
The system operates as follows: the irradiator unit 1 generates an X-ray pulse beam that produces a sufficiently low radiation dose.
The memory unit 3 stores the number of quantas reflected from each point of the object 7 during the movement of the unit 1 or the researched object 7. The digital representation unit 4 provides a digital representation of the internal structure of object 7. The digital representation of the internal structure of object 7 is created using a computer algorithm based on the fact that each point of the object 7 is irradiated by the beam with variable (e.g. incremented) intenseness, and the reflected portion of the beam is registered as a number of quantas, stored in the memory unit 3.
The image creation unit 5 is a computer module that, for each point of the object 7 and its internal structure, calculates a function of dependency upon the registered number of quantas from each irradiated point of the object 7, as well as upon the registered number of quantas from each previous and each next irradiated point of the object 7. The function represents a table of reflected quantas, wherein the numbers of quantas reflected from the current point and from the next point are compared, which allows accounting for frontal and end reflections, which conditions the building an image of the object 7 or/and its internal structure. The unit 6 visualizes the image, and renders thereof on a hard copy or on a display.
R[i]=˜(N[i]̂N[i+1]),
wherein:
the ̂ symbol means bit-summarizing (XOR)
R[i] represents an image of an object's point ‘i’;
N[i] represents a registered number of quantas reflected from the irradiated point ‘i’; N[i+1] represents a registered number of quantas reflected from the next irradiated point ‘i+1’. The function allows obtaining the boundaries of uniformed zones of the object, and thus allows identifying the packet with wheat flour on the left of the disc (shown by arrow A).
As mentioned above,
The number of gamma quantas in the beam can be conventionally regulated by known means through control of intensity of the radiation source.
It can also be sometimes expedient to smoothly raise the number of gamma quantas in the beam according to a linear function of time, producing a graduate increase of clarity and contrast of the image, which can make the system adaptive to properties of various researched objects.
