Patent ID: 7203272

Claim:
A computed tomography imaging system which comprises: a two-dimensional array of detector elements for receiving photons emanating in a cone beam from a source; a digital acquisition system for acquiring two-dimensional arrays of cone beam data from the array of detector elements at a series of views in which the source revolves around a subject to be imaged; means for calculating a weighted derivative of the acquired cone beam data; a first filter coupled to receive the weighted derivative and produce therefrom first filtered cone beam data Q 1 ; a second filter coupled to receive the weighted derivative and produce therefrom second filtered cone beam data Q 2 ; a third filter coupled to receive the weighted derivative and produce therefrom third filtered cone beam data Q 3 ; means for backprojecting the respective first, second and third filtered cone beam data Q 1 , Q 2 and Q 3 to produce backprojected data; and means for receiving the backprojected data and summing the backprojected data from the respective first, second and third filtered cone beam data to produce an image of the subject.