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Coded aperture X-ray computed tomography is a computational imaging technique capable of reconstructing inner structures of an object from a reduced set of X-ray projection measurements. Coded apertures are placed in front of the X-ray sources from different views and thus significantly reduce the radiation dose. This paper introduces coded aperture X-ray computed tomography for robotic X-ray systems which offer positioning flexibility. While single coded-aperture 3D tomography was recently introduced for standard trajectory CT scanning, it is shown that significant gains in imaging performance can be attained by simple modifications in the CT scanning trajectories enabled by emerging dual robotic CT systems. In particular, the subject is fixed on a plane and the CT system uniformly rotates around the r −axis which is misaligned with the coordinate axes. A single stationary coded aperture is placed on front of the robotic X-ray source above the plane and the corresponding X-ray projections are measured by a two-dimensional detector on the second arm of the robotic system. The compressive measurements with misalignment enable the reconstruction of high-resolution three-dimensional volumetric images from the low-resolution coded projections on the detector at a sub-sampling rate. An efficient algorithm is proposed to generate the rotation matrix with two basic sub-matrices and thus the forward model is formulated. The stationary coded aperture is designed based on the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis and the direct binary search algorithm is used to obtain the optimized coded aperture. Simulations using simulated datasets show significant gains in reconstruction performance compared to conventional coded aperture CT systems.
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Passive Snapshot Coded Aperture Dual-Pixel RGB-D Imaging
Passive, compact, single-shot 3D sensing is useful in many application areas such as microscopy, medical imaging, surgical navigation, and autonomous driving where form factor, time, and power constraints can exist. Obtaining RGB-D scene information over a short imaging distance, in an ultra-compact form factor, and in a passive, snapshot manner is challenging. Dual-pixel (DP) sensors are a potential solution to achieve the same. DP sensors collect light rays from two different halves of the lens in two interleaved pixel arrays, thus capturing two slightly different views of the scene, like a stereo camera system. However, imaging with a DP sensor implies that the defocus blur size is directly proportional to the disparity seen between the views. This creates a trade-off between disparity estimation vs. deblurring accuracy. To improve this trade-off effect, we propose CADS (Coded Aperture Dual-Pixel Sensing), in which we use a coded aperture in the imaging lens along with a DP sensor. In our approach, we jointly learn an optimal coded pattern and the reconstruction algorithm in an end-to-end optimization setting. Our resulting CADS imaging system demonstrates improvement of >1.5dB PSNR in all-in-focus (AIF) estimates and 5-6% in depth estimation quality over naive DP sensing for a wide range of aperture settings. Furthermore, we build the proposed CADS prototypes for DSLR photography settings and in an endoscope and a dermoscope form factor. Our novel coded dual-pixel sensing approach demonstrates accurate RGB-D reconstruction results in simulations and real-world experiments in a passive, snapshot, and compact manner.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1730574
- PAR ID:
- 10583295
- Publisher / Repository:
- ArXiv
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Static coded aperture x-ray tomography was introduced recently where a static illumination pattern is used to interrogate an object with a low radiation dose, from which an accurate 3D reconstruction of the object can be attained computationally. Rather than continuously switching the pattern of illumination with each view angle, as traditionally done, static code computed tomography (CT) places a single pattern for all views. The advantages are many, including the feasibility of practical implementation. This paper generalizes this powerful framework to develop single-scan dual-energy coded aperture spectral tomography that enables material characterization at a significantly reduced exposure level. Two sensing strategies are explored: rapid kV switching with a single-static block/unblock coded aperture, and coded apertures with non-uniform thickness. Both systems rely on coded illumination with a plurality of x-ray spectra created by kV switching or 3D coded apertures. The structured x-ray illumination is projected through the objects of interest and measured with standard x-ray energy integrating detectors. Then, based on the tensor representation of projection data, we develop an algorithm to estimate a full set of synthesized measurements that can be used with standard reconstruction algorithms to accurately recover the object in each energy channel. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed cost-effective solution to attain material characterization in low-dose dual-energy CT.more » « less
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Abstract: Coded aperture X-ray computed tomography (CT) has the potential to revolutionize X-ray tomography systems in medical imaging and air and rail transit security - both areas of global importance. It allows either a reduced set of measurements in X-ray CT without degrada- tion in image reconstruction, or measure multiplexed X-rays to simplify the sensing geometry. Measurement reduction is of particular interest in medical imaging to reduce radiation, and airport security often imposes practical constraints leading to limited angle geometries. Coded aperture compressive X-ray CT places a coded aperture pattern in front of the X-ray source in order to obtain patterned projections onto a detector. Compressive sensing (CS) reconstruction algorithms are then used to recover the image. To date, the coded illumination patterns used in conventional CT systems have been random. This paper addresses the code optimization prob- lem for general tomography imaging based on the point spread function (PSF) of the system, which is used as a measure of the sensing matrix quality which connects to the restricted isom- etry property (RIP) and coherence of the sensing matrix. The methods presented are general, simple to use, and can be easily extended to other imaging systems. Simulations are presented where the peak signal to noise ratios (PSNR) of the reconstructed images using optimized coded apertures exhibit significant gain over those attained by random coded apertures. Additionally, results using real X-ray tomography projections are presented.more » « less
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