Patent ID: 8045811

Claim:
In a computed tomography system comprising a stationary part, a rotatable part mounted for rotation around an object to be examined and an interface between the stationary part and the rotatable part, the rotatable part including a sensor array for detecting radiation passing through the object, the sensor array producing a plurality of sets of projection data, wherein each set includes an array of samples acquired for a corresponding view during a data acquisition period, a method comprising: (a) compressing the samples of each set of projection data to form compressed samples, wherein the compressed samples for each set are arranged in at least one compressed packet, wherein each compressed packet contains the compressed samples of a corresponding portion of the projection data; (b) storing a plurality of the compressed packets for the plurality of sets of projection data in a storage device connected to and rotating with the rotatable part, wherein each of the compressed packets is stored at a corresponding location in the storage device that is accessible based on a packet location parameter during a controllable time period; (c) retrieving at least one compressed packet from the corresponding location in the storage device in accordance with the packet location parameter in response to a data access command; (d) transferring the compressed packet retrieved from the storage device to a receiver on the stationary part over a communication channel of the interface at a data transfer rate; (e) decompressing the compressed samples of the received compressed packet to form decompressed samples for the corresponding portion of the projection data; and (f) providing the decompressed samples to an image reconstruction processor for subsequent reconstruction of an image of the object; the method further comprising: maintaining an access array containing a plurality of data access parameters corresponding to the plurality of compressed packets for the step of retrieving, wherein at least one index parameter is associated with the corresponding portion of the projection data for each of the plurality of compressed packets; calculating a size of each compressed packet to form a plurality of sizes; and generating the plurality of data access parameters based on the plurality of sizes, wherein the access array associates the data access parameter with the index parameter of the corresponding portion of the projection data.