Patent ID: 11860333
Assignee: THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A screening system comprising:
a sensor array to sense a gravitational field caused by an item;
a conveyor including a plurality of sensor elements, the conveyor configured to convey the item through a plurality of sensing positions for scanning by the sensor array; and
a controller configured to:
direct the conveyor to advance the item to a current sensing position of a plurality of sensing positions for the sensor array;
acquire weight measurement information from the plurality of sensor elements for the current sensing position, the weight measurement information corresponding to an absolute rest mass measurement of an item weight;
acquire gravitational measurement information from the sensor array for the current sensing position, the gravitational measurement information corresponding to an absolute measurement of a gravitational field as affected by the item in the current sensing position;
incrementally advance the item and repeat, for additional sensing positions, acquiring weight measurement information and gravitational measurement information for remaining ones of the plurality of sensing positions;
generate a weight map of the item by processing the weight measurement information for the plurality of sensing positions, the weight map being a weight measurement vector including a weight image across a surface of the item resolved to a sensor resolution of the plurality of sensor elements;
generate a mass map of the item by processing the gravitational measurement information for the plurality of sensing positions, the mass map being a mass measurement vector including a mass image across a surface of the item resolved to a sensor resolution of the sensor array; and
perform tomographic reconstruction to generate a tomographic image of the item, using the weight map as a static weight input vector and using the mass map as a static mass input vector for the tomographic reconstruction.