Penetrating radiant energy imaging system with multiple resolution

Abstract

Penetrating radiant energy imaging system employs a scanning pencil beam of radiant energy. In some embodiments of the invention, the cross-section of the beam varies in a controlled manner; in a disclosed embodiment the beam has either one or another cross-section. A detector responds to incident radiant energy passing through a target and provides signals to a processor which produces from the signals a pair of image arrays, each array consisting of signals generated by the scanning pencil beam of one cross-section or the other. Increased contrast and/or resolution is provided by selectively combining the signals in the image arrays. In other embodiments of the invention, specifically related to tomographic imaging, rather than controlling the cross-section of the radiant energy at the source, the cross-section of the radiant energy is controlled at the detector field. In these embodiments, the detector field is occupied by multiple detectors and one or more of the detectors has a field of view which is different from the field of view of other detectors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.