Patent Number: 050671448
Section: claims

1. A system for examining an object with penetrating radiation, comprising: a source/modulator which generates a fan of penetrating radiation scanning an object position and comprises wedge-shaped pins of a radiation attenuating material movable into the fan in the scanning direction and arranged in at least one row extending in a direction transverse to both the scanning direction and the propagation direction of said radiation;  each of said pins having a ridge pointing to or away from the origin of the fan and each pin having sections of different areas in different planes normal to the scanning direction; and  a control circuit moving said pins individually to respective degrees into the scanning fan.  a source/modulator which generates penetrating radiation scanning an object position and comprises attenuating portions which are individually movable into the scanning radiation along respective axes;  each attenuating portion having sections in planes transverse to the scanning direction whose areas change substantially monotonically with distance along the scanning direction over substantially the entire part of the attenuation portion that is movable into the scanning radiation to intercept the radiation, each section having a dimension in a direction transverse to both the scanning direction and the propagation direction of the radiation which changes monotonically along said propagation direction; and  a control circuit which moves said attenuating portions to respective degrees into the penetrating radiation scanning the object position.  scanning an object position with a fan of penetrating radiation and moving, together with the scanning fan, attenuating elements which are arranged in at least one row extending in a direction transverse both to the scanning direction and to the propagation direction of the fan and are individually movable into the fan in the scanning direction;  each attenuating element when moved into the fan having a ridge which faces toward or away from the origin of the fan and having different areas in sections defined by different planes which are parallel to each other but transverse to the scanning direction; and  controlling the respective degrees of movement of the attenuating elements into the fan as a function of the spatial distribution of attenuating material at the object position. 2. A system as in claim 1 in which said pins are in at least two rows spaced from each other in the propagation direction of the fan and are shaped and positioned to cause most rays in the fan to pass through a pin from each row when the pins are all the way into the fan. 3. A system as in claim 2 in which said rows of pins extend along respective arcs centered at the origin of the fan. 4. A system as in claim 3 in which said ridge is rounded. 5. A system as in claim 3 in which said ridge is truncated. 6. A system as in claim 2 in which said sections are generally triangular, each having an apex at said ridge and a base opposite the apex. 7. A system as in claim 6 in which the base does not vary in size as between different sections and as between pins. 8. A system as in claim 1 in which said sections are generally triangular, having bases which are the same in size in all sections and are spaced from each other by a distance much smaller than the size of a base. 9. A system as in claim 8 in which the pins are in at least two rows spaced from each other in the propagation direction of the fan. 10. A system as in claim 9 including a detector/imager which receives the fan exiting said object position and utilizes the received radiation to form a radiographic image of the object position and any object thereat and to generate a signal controlling said control circuit. 11. A system as in claim 1 in which the pins are in two rows spaced along the propagation direction of the fan and wherein when the pins are all the way into the fan a fan ray which passes between two adjacent pins in one row passes through the ridge of a pin in the other row. 12. A system as in claim 11 in which when all the pins are all the way into the fan, the path length of fan rays through the pins in any one of a plurality of planes normal to the scan direction does not vary substantially with angle in the fan. 13. A system as in claim 1 in which the source/modulator comprises an x-ray tube generating said radiation, the distance between the focal spot of the tube and the pins is in the range of about 7 to 15 inches and the largest dimension of a pin in a plane normal to the scanning direction is in the range of about two to four times the size of the focal spot. 14. A system as in claim 13 in which the size of the focal spot is about 1 mm and said largest dimension of a pin is about 3 mm. 15. A system for examining an object with penetrating radiation comprising: 16. A system as in claim 15 in which said sections are generally triangular. 17. A system as in claim 15 in which said portions comprise pins a radiation-attenuating material which individually move into the penetrating radiation scanning the object positon. 18. A system as in claim 15 in which said sections are trapezoidal. 19. A system as in claim 15 in which said portions comprise portions of a diaphragm of a radiationattenuating material and pins which individually move in the scanning direction. 20. A method comprising the steps of: