Patent ID: 8325871

Claim:
An inspection system for inspecting an object, the inspection system comprising: a. an external source of illuminating penetrating radiation for generating an illuminating beam and for irradiating the object, at least intermittently, the beam characterized at each instant of time by an instantaneous energy spectrum and an instantaneous intensity that may be substantially zero; b. at least one detector configured to detect penetrating radiation including, but not limited to, penetrating radiation from the illuminating beam that is backscattered by the object, and configured to generate a detector signal; and c. a processor configured as a detector signal discriminator to receive the detector signal, generate an x-ray image based on the detector signal depicting at least illuminating radiation backscattered by the object, and generate an output that may be perceived by an operator, the output indicating whether the detector signal is triggered at least in part by an origin independent of the illuminating penetrating radiation; d. a display showing the x-ray image depicting at least illuminating radiation backscattered by the object.