Data processing structure to enable tomographic imaging with detector arrays using ambient particle flux

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10067260-B2
Application number	US-201615019856-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2016
Priority date	Feb 9, 2015
Publication date	Sep 4, 2018
Grant date	Sep 4, 2018

Abstract

Techniques, systems and apparatus are described for operating a multimode passive detection system (MMPDS). System control settings including operating parameters for the multimode passive detection system are stored. Detector signals are processed to reconstruct an image of a scanned volume and identify an object in the scanned volume based on the reconstructed image. The operating parameters and the detector signals at different processing stages are recorded. An operational health of the multimode passive detection system is monitored. Monitoring the operational health includes receiving information representing the operational health of various components of the multimode passive detection system, and determining an operational health status of one or more of the various components of the multimode passive detection system based on the received information representing the operational health of the multimode passive detection system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A multimode passive detection system responsive to naturally occurring ambient charged particles, comprising:
a processor and a memory having instructions stored thereupon, wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to:
set system control settings including operating parameters for the multimode passive detection system;
process detector signals received from charged particle detectors to reconstruct an image of a scanned volume and identify a region of interest in the scanned volume based on the reconstructed image, wherein processing of the detector signal includes:
obtaining, from the charged particle detectors, detector data representing an electrical response to one or more charged particles entering respective charged particle detectors as spatially separated data streams,
merging the spatially segregated data streams obtained from the charged particle detectors into a time-synchronous detection stream, and
identifying the region of interest in the scanned volume based at least in-part on particle tracks associated with the charged particles entering the charged particle detectors;

record the set operating parameters and the detector signals at different data processing stages;
receive information representing operational health of various components of the multimode passive detection system; and
determine an operational health status of one or more of the various components of the multimode passive detection system, wherein the determination of the operational health status is based on a comparison of the received information representing operational health of various components of the multimode passive detection system against a range of predetermined parameters.

2. The multimode passive detection system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to process detector signals, record the operating parameters and the detector signals, and receive information representing operational health substantially in parallel.

3. The multimode passive detection system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to process detector signals to determine whether the identified region contains a material of interest.

4. The multimode passive detection system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to process detector signals by:
parsing the time-synchronous detection stream into epochs of a predetermined time duration.

5. The multimode passive detection system of claim 4 , wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to collate the charged particle detector data from the charged particle detectors substantially simultaneously to obtain detector data, merge the spatially segregated data streams, and parse the time-synchronous detection stream.

6. The multimode passive detection system of claim 4 , wherein instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to:
identify the particle tracks associated with the charged particles entering the charged particle detectors; and
collect the identified particle tracks.

7. The multimode passive detection system of claim 6 , wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to process detector signals by:
identifying an object of interest in the scanned volume based on the collected particle tracks; and
determining whether the identified object contains a material of interest.

8. The multimode passive detection system of claim 1 , wherein the operating parameters include a number of sensor modules in the multimode passive detection system.

9. The multimode passive detection system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions upon execution by the processor configures the multimode passive detection system to:
display on a monitor the operational health status of one or more of the various components, wherein
the operational health status of one or more of the various components is configured to indicate whether the operational health status is within the range of the predetermined parameters, and
the operational health status of one or more of the various components is configured to whether the operational health status is out of the range of the predetermined parameters.

10. A method of operating a multimode passive detection system that operates based on detection of naturally occurring ambient charged particles, comprising:
setting system control settings including operating parameters for the multimode passive detection system;
processing detector signals obtained from detection of the naturally occurring ambient particles to reconstruct an image of a scanned volume and identify a region of interest in the scanned volume based on the reconstructed image, wherein the processing of detector signals includes:
obtaining from the charged particle detectors detector data representing an electrical response to one or more charged particles entering respective charged particle detectors as spatially separated data streams,
merging the spatially segregated data streams obtained from the charged particle detectors into a time-synchronous detection stream, and
identifying the region of interest in the scanned volume based at least in-part on particle tracks associated with the charged particles entering the charged particle detectors;

recording the set operating parameters for the multimode passive detection system and the detector signals at different data processing stages; and
monitoring an operational health of the multimode passive detection system including:
receiving information representing the operational health of various components of the multimode passive detection system, and
determining an operational health status of one or more of the various components of the multimode passive detection system, wherein the determining of the operational health status is based on a comparison of the received information representing the operational health of the various components of the multimode passive detection system against a range of predetermined parameters.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the processing, the recording and the monitoring operations are performed substantially in parallel.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the processing of detector signals includes determining whether the identified region of interest contains a material of interest.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the processing of detector signals includes:
parsing the time-synchronous detection stream into epochs of a predetermined time duration.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the processing of detector signals includes collating the charged particle detector data from the charged particle detectors substantially simultaneously.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the processing of detector signals includes:
identifying the particle tracks associated with the charged particles entering the charged particle detectors based on the epochs; and
collecting the identified particle tracks.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the processing of detector signals includes:
identifying the region of interest in the scanned volume based on the collected particle tracks; and
determining whether the identified region of interest contain a material of interest.

17.

Assignees

• Decision Sciences Int Corp

Inventors

• Mckenney Shawn
• Glover Jeffrey
• Sossong Michael James
• Hayes James J

Classifications

• G06T12/30

  Image post-processing, e.g. metal artefact correction · CPC title

• G06T7/0002

  Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection · CPC title

• G06T2207/20221

  Image fusion; Image merging · CPC title

• G06T2207/30232

  Surveillance · CPC title

• G06T2207/10072

  Tomographic images · CPC title