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 22:
23. A method for scanning an item, comprising:
directing, by a controller of a screening system, a conveyor of the screening system to advance an item to a current sensing position of a plurality of sensing positions for a sensor array of the screening system;
acquiring weight measurement information from a plurality of sensor elements of the conveyor for the current sensing position, the weight measurement information corresponding to an absolute rest mass measurement of an item weight;
acquiring 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 advancing the item and repeating, for additional sensing positions, acquiring weight measurement information and gravitational measurement information for remaining ones of the plurality of sensing positions;
generating 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;
generating 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
performing 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.