Walk-through shoe inspection system
AssigneeAmerican Science and Engineering, Inc.
InventorPeter J. Rothschild
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for x-ray inspection of footwear while the footwear is worn on the feet of walking persons. A source of penetrating radiation, such as an x-ray tube, mounted on one side of a system, provides a fan beam of penetrating radiation contained in a substantially vertical plane, while a detector, disposed on the opposing side of the system, detects penetrating radiation that has traversed the footwear. A controller creates an image of the footwear. The system may have a sensor for detecting presence of the person and for initiating operation of the source of penetrating radiation in response thereto. The system may be installed inside a portal including a metal detector portal.
Claims13
An inspection system for inspecting footwear of an ambulant shod person, the system characterized by a first side and an opposing side, the system comprising:
- a. a source of penetrating radiation mounted on the first side of the system for providing a fan beam of penetrating radiation contained in a substantially vertical plane that traverses at least one foot of the ambulant shod person during the course of walking and exposes each foot to a dose of penetrating radiation of no more than 25 μR;
- b. a collimated linear array of photon-counting detectors disposed on the opposing side of the system for detecting penetrating radiation that has traversed the footwear of the ambulant shod person and generating a transmission signal;
- and
- c. a segmenting module implemented in software on a controller for identifying anomalies in the footwear of the ambulant shod person on a basis of the transmission signal.
A method for inspecting footwear of an ambulant shod person, the method comprising:
- a. detecting presence of a person between a first side and an opposing side of a portal;
- b. in response to detection of the presence of the person, successively irradiating footwear of the person with a fan beam of penetrating radiation emanating from the first side of the portal;
- c. detecting penetrating radiation that has traversed the footwear of the shod person;
- and
- d. creating an image of penetrating radiation after traversal of the footwear of the shod person.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.