Patent ID: 8519348

Claim:
A method for monitoring the state of calibration of a digital x-ray detector, the detector comprising a solid state sensor, a scintillating screen and at least one embedded microprocessor, the solid state sensor comprising a plurality of pixels, the method comprising using a computer or the embedded microprocessor or both, during normal diagnostic use of the detector, to perform steps of: accessing a digital image including digital image data; calculating a misregistration metric from the digital image data indicative of movement of the solid state sensor relative to the scintillating screen; calculating a defect metric from the digital image data indicative of abnormal properties of pixels in the solid state sensor; determining whether one or both of the misregistration metric and the defect metric exceeds a respective, preselected threshold value; and alerting a user of the detector to conduct a calibration of the solid state sensor when either or both of the respective threshold values has been attained.