Scanners to characterize and distinguish anomalies based on multiple mode scans and scan time thresholds

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12444200-B2
Application number	US-202418979033-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2024
Priority date	Feb 1, 2021
Publication date	Oct 14, 2025
Grant date	Oct 14, 2025

Abstract

An example method to characterize an anomaly includes obtaining information about an item using a first mode scan and detecting whether the item contains an anomaly based on the information. The method further includes determining, responsive to detecting the anomaly, an area of interest of the item corresponding to a location of the anomaly, and determining a strategy including a procedure to obtain other information of the area of interest. The method refines a characterization of the anomaly based on the other information, and compares the characterization of the anomaly to a predetermined criterion. The method iteratively revises the strategy to perform additional available procedures, to further refine the characterization of the anomaly. When the characterization of the anomaly meets the predetermined criterion corresponding to a prohibited item, the method identifies the anomaly as prohibited.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to characterize an anomaly, comprising:
obtaining information about an item using a first mode scan;
detecting whether the item contains an anomaly based on the information;
determining, responsive to detecting the anomaly, an area of interest of the item corresponding to a location of the anomaly;
determining, based on the information, a strategy including a procedure to obtain other information of the area of interest;
performing the procedure to refine a characterization of the anomaly based on the other information;
comparing the characterization of the anomaly to a predetermined criterion;
when the characterization of the anomaly does not meet the predetermined criterion and an additional procedure to refine the characterization of the anomaly is available, iteratively revising the strategy to perform the additional procedure and further refine the characterization of the anomaly;
when the characterization of the anomaly does not meet the predetermined criterion and no additional procedures to refine the characterization of the anomaly are available, flagging the item to indicate another method is needed to characterize the anomaly;
when the characterization of the anomaly meets the predetermined criterion corresponding to a prohibited item, identifying the anomaly as prohibited;
detecting a plurality of anomalies based on the first mode scan of the item;
determining a plurality of areas of interest corresponding to the plurality of anomalies;
determining, according to the strategy, a second mode scan time estimate corresponding to obtaining a plurality of second mode scans of the plurality of areas of interest;
determining, according to the strategy, whether the second mode scan time estimate exceeds a scan time threshold; and
when the second mode scan time estimate exceeds the scan time threshold, terminating, according to the strategy, second mode scans of the item and flagging the item for manual screening.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, when the characterization of the anomaly meets the predetermined criterion corresponding to a permitted item, identifying the anomaly as not being a security risk.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the strategy including the procedure comprises deriving the other information by performing further analysis of the information.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the strategy including the procedure comprises adjusting how to perform a second mode scan to obtain the other information.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the strategy including the procedure comprises:
comparing the information to one or more previous scans associated with respective one or more previous successful procedures;
identifying a most similar previous scan, associated with a respective most similar previous successful procedure, from among the one or more previous scans; and
when the most similar previous successful procedure is available, revising the strategy to adopt the most similar previous successful procedure to refine the characterization of the anomaly.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the information using an emitter and a sensor of a scanner.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising flagging the item to indicate that manual screening is needed to characterize the anomaly.

8. A method to characterize an anomaly, comprising:
obtaining, by a scanner, information representing a first mode scan of an item;
detecting whether the item contains an anomaly based on the information representing the first mode scan;
determining an area of interest of the item corresponding to a location of the anomaly, responsive to detecting the anomaly;
determining a strategy to obtain other information relevant to characterizing the anomaly;
interposing, according to the strategy, at least one diffraction grating in a beam path of the scanner that was used to obtain the information representing the first mode scan;
obtaining, by the scanner according to the strategy, other information representing a second mode scan of the area of interest while using the at least one diffraction grating, the second mode scan being a phase contrast scan;
characterizing the anomaly based on the second mode scan;
differentiating whether the anomaly constitutes a security risk based on comparing an anomaly characteristic to a predetermined criterion;
detecting a plurality of anomalies based on the first mode scan of the item;
determining a plurality of areas of interest corresponding to the plurality of anomalies;
determining, according to the strategy, a second mode scan time estimate corresponding to obtaining a plurality of second mode scans of the plurality of areas of interest;
determining, according to the strategy, whether the second mode scan time estimate exceeds a scan time threshold; and
when the second mode scan time estimate exceeds the scan time threshold, terminating, according to the strategy, second mode scans of the item and flagging the item for manual screening.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising, while obtaining the second mode scan of the area of interest using the at least one diffraction grating according to the strategy, obtaining a partial first mode scan of the area of interest that is subject to the second mode scan.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
matching the partial first mode scan to a corresponding portion of the first mode scan;
verifying alignment of the second mode scan relative to the first mode scan based on the matching; and
verifying that the second mode scan corresponds to the area of interest based on the matching.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
comparing the partial first mode scan to a corresponding portion of the first mode scan to determine an offset;
registering alignment between the first mode scan and the second mode scan according to the offset; and
aiming the second mode scan by accounting for the offset relative to results from the first mode scan.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the first mode scan and the partial first mode scan being formed of first scan information, and the second mode scan being formed of second scan information that is orthogonal to the first scan information.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
comparing information from the first mode scan with corresponding partial first information from the partial first mode scan;
determining whether there is difference information, representing a difference between the information and the partial first information;
comparing the difference information to an alert threshold; and
generating an alert responsive to the difference information exceeding the alert threshold.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
comparing the difference information to a rescan threshold; and
obtaining a replacement scan, responsive to the difference information exceeding the rescan threshold, the replacement scan being based on at least one of a different scan mode or different scan processing algorithm.

15. The method of claim 8 , further comprising removing at least one diffraction grating from the beam path to configure the scanner according to the strategy.

16. The method of claim 8 , further comprising operating the scanner with a first dwell time at a first power level to obtain the first mode scan, and operating the scanner with a second dwell time at a second power level according to the strategy to obtain the second mode scan.

17. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
fusing t

Assignees

• The Government Of The Us Secretary Of Homeland Security
• The Government Of The United States Of America Represented By The Secretary Of Homeland Security

Inventors

• Fortune John
• Lewis Brian
• Weinberger Michelle

Classifications

• G06F18/251

  of input or preprocessed data · CPC title

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• G06V10/25

  Determination of region of interest [ROI] or a volume of interest [VOI] · CPC title

• G06T7/70

  Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras (camera calibration G06T7/80) · CPC title

• G06T2207/10116

  X-ray image · CPC title