Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. An energy-sensitive computed tomography system, comprising:a gantry configured to rotate around an object;an X-ray source coupled to said gantry and configured to emit an X-ray beam to be incident upon the object;a detector coupled to said gantry, said detector comprising a plurality of detector elements configured to receive the X-ray beam transmitted through the object and produce a plurality of signals that represent intensity data of the X-ray beam;a filter disposed between said X-ray source and said detector, said filter comprises a first plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam to be received by a first subset of said plurality of detector elements into a total energy spectrum, and a second plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam to be received by a second subset of said plurality of detector elements into a high energy spectrum;a computer coupled to the detector, wherein said computer is configured to:interpolate intensity data of at least one of the high-energy spectrum and the total-energy spectrum, anddetermine, from the interpolated intensity data, intensity data corresponding to a low-energy spectrum. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said filter comprises an alternating pattern of a plurality of attenuating materials. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the alternating pattern comprises at least one of a checkerboard pattern, an alternating row pattern, an alternating column pattern, and an alternating pack pattern. 4. The system of claim 1, wherein said detector comprises a photon-counting detector. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein said detector comprises an energy-integrating detector. 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the X-ray source is configured to operate at a voltage between 80 kV and 200 kV. 7. A method of energy-sensitive computed tomography imaging, the method comprising:emitting an X-ray beam from an X-ray source coupled to a gantry configured to rotate around an object;receiving, via a detector comprising a plurality of detector elements, the X-ray beam transmitted through the object;provide, via the detector, a plurality of signals that represent intensity data of the X-ray beam;outputting, via a filter disposed between the X-ray source and the detector, a high-energy spectrum and a total energy spectrum;interpolating, via a computer, intensity data of at least one of the high-energy spectrum and the total-energy spectrum, anddetermining, from the interpolated intensity data, intensity data corresponding to a low-energy spectrum. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the filter comprises at least one of a checkerboard pattern, an alternating row pattern, an alternating column pattern, and an alternating pack pattern of attenuating materials. 9. The method of claim 7, whereindetermining, from the interpolated intensity data, intensity data corresponding to a low-energy spectrum comprises subtracting the interpolated intensity data of the high-energy spectrum from the intensity data from the total-energy spectrum or subtracting the interpolated intensity data of the total-energy spectrum from the intensity data from the high-energy spectrum to obtain intensity data corresponding to the low-energy spectrum. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising calculating at least one of a material decomposition of the object and an effective atomic number distribution within the object based upon intensity data generated from the high-energy spectrum and the low-energy spectrum. 11. The method of claim 7, further comprising operating the X-ray source at a voltage between 80 and 200 kV. 12. The method of claim 7, wherein the detector comprises an energy-integrating detector. 13. The method of claim 7, wherein the detector comprises a photon-counting detector. 14. An energy-sensitive computed tomography system, comprising:a gantry configured to rotate around an object;an X-ray source coupled to said gantry and configured to emit an X-ray beam to be incident upon the object;a detector comprising a plurality of detector elements, said detector configured to receive the X-ray beam transmitted through the object and produce a plurality of signals that represent intensity data of the X-ray beam; anda filter disposed between said X-ray source and said detector, said filter comprising a first plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam into a first spectrum, and a second plurality of sections configured to shape a portion of the X-ray beam into a second spectrum;a computer configured to:receive a plurality of intensity measurements from said plurality of detector elements, wherein said detector facilitates simultaneously measuring an intensity of the X-ray beam transmitted through the object in the first spectrum and an intensity of the X-ray beam transmitted through the object in the second spectrum;interpolate a set of intensity data of the X-ray beam in the first spectrum and/or the second spectrum; andcalculate, from the interpolated set of intensity data and the plurality of intensity measurements, a set of intensity data corresponding to an intensity of the X-ray beam transmitted through the object in a third spectrum. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein said first plurality of sections and said second plurality of sections are disposed in an alternating pattern. 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the alternating pattern comprises at least one of a checkerboard pattern, an alternating row pattern, an alternating column pattern, and an alternating pack pattern. 17. The system of claim 14, wherein the first spectrum is a total-energy spectrum, the second spectrum is a high-energy spectrum, and the third spectrum is a low-energy spectrum.