Portable medical imaging system with beam scanning collimator

A portable medical imaging system comprising:

• a movable station comprising a c-arm having a first end and a second end that are movable along an arc relative to the movable station;
• a detector panel attached to the first end of the movable c-arm;
• an X-ray beam transmitter facing the detector panel and attached to the second end of the c-arm, the X-ray beam transmitter containing a collimator that forms a window through which an X-ray beam is transmitted toward the detector panel, wherein the collimator is configured to move the window in a lateral direction across a direction of the arc;
• and
• a controller configured to control movement of the window by the collimator to steer the X-ray beam laterally across the detector panel,
• wherein a filter ladder comprising a support structure and a movable elongated strip, the support structure being connected to the collimator, the movable elongated strip being slideably connected to the support structure, the filter ladder further comprising a plurality of X-ray filters each providing differing levels of X-ray filtering and attached to the movable elongated strip, and a light source attached to the movable elongated strip at a location spaced apart from the X-ray filters, wherein the movable elongated strip is configured to be slidable across the window to sequentially align different ones of the X-ray filters and the light source with the window, the lit source is configured to project visible light toward the detector panel when aligned with the window.