System and method for detecting an object by dynamically adjusting computational load

A system for detecting an explosive device within an article, comprising:

• an acquisition subsystem comprising a scanning device having at least one scanning detector for acquiring view data of the contents of an article, wherein the acquisition subsystem comprises a computed tomography machine comprising at least one x-ray source and at least one detector;
• a reconstruction subsystem comprising a plurality of reconstruction stages for reconstructing the view data into image data;
• a computer-aided detection subsystem comprising a plurality of computer-aided detection stages for analyzing the image data;
• and
• a feedback loop between the reconstruction subsystem and the computer-aided detection subsystem for automatically determining whether to initiate additional stages of the plurality of reconstruction stages as a function of reconstructed acquired image data and risk variables associated with the object and for analyzing to ascertain whether the contents of the article include an explosive device.

A system for detecting an object located within an article, comprising:

• a reconstruction subsystem for reconstructing acquired information pertaining to an object into image data, wherein the reconstruction subsystem comprises a plurality of reconstruction stages, further wherein the reconstruction subsystem comprises multiple stages that perform multi-stage reconstructions;
• a computer-aided detection subsystem adapted to analyze the image data;
• and
• a risk variables subsystem for dynamically adjusting the computational load of the reconstruction and computer-aided detection subsystems by automatically determining whether to initiate additional stages of the plurality of reconstruction stages as a function of reconstructed acquired image data and risk variables associated with the object.

A method for detecting an explosive device within an article, comprising:

• acquiring view data of an object located within an article from a scanning device, using a computed tomography machine comprising an x-ray source and a detector;
• communicating the view data of the object to a plurality of reconstruction stages;
• reconstructing the view data of the object into image data of the object with at least one of the plurality of reconstruction stages;
• analyzing the image data of the object and risk variables of the object to identify whether the object is an explosive device;
• and
• determining whether to reconstruct the view data of the object into image data with additional reconstruction states of the plurality of reconstruction stages as a function of said analyzing the image data.

A method for detecting an object located within an article, comprising the steps of:

• reconstructing with a reconstruction subsystem acquired information pertaining to an object into image data, wherein the reconstruction subsystem comprises a plurality of reconstruction stages, further wherein the reconstruction subsystem comprises multiple stages that perform multi-stage reconstructions;
• analyzing the image data based on generated risk variables;
• and
• dynamically adjusting the computational load of the reconstructing step as a function of the analyzing step by determining whether to reconstruct the acquired information with an additional stage of the reconstruction subsystem.