Patent ID: 7643604

Claim:
A three-dimensional image-generating device comprising: an external gamma radiation source configured to irradiate an inspected object with source gamma rays to generate a three-dimensional representation of said inspected object; a radiation detector configured to detect Compton-scattered gamma rays scattered from within said inspected object, wherein said radiation detector comprises a gamma spectrometer and approximates a point detector; wherein said gamma spectrometer is configured to register a plurality of single detection events of said Compton-scattered gamma rays, wherein said plurality of single detection events are detected individually; and wherein said gamma spectrometer is configured to concurrently measure energies of Compton-scattered gamma photons associated with said detection events; a multi-channel pulse height analyzer coupled to said gamma spectrometer and configured to analyze voltage pulse heights representing the energies of the Compton-scattered gamma photons and sort the voltage pulse heights based upon the energies of the Compton-scattered gamma photons, into a plurality of energy bins; said gamma spectrometer and the multi-channel pulse-height analyzer are configured to determine a bin-average value of energy for said Compton-scattered gamma rays having a predetermined energy bin width; said gamma spectrometer is configured to determine values of the gamma count rate for said Compton-scattered gamma rays arriving at the detector, wherein predetermined energy bin widths are established for counted gamma rays having specific energies; said multi-channel pulse height analyzer is configured to assign the bin-average value of energy for each Compton-scattered photon having an energy associated with a specific isogonic arc having a specific radius; said multi-channel pulse height analyzer is configured to determine energy bin boundaries for each energy bin such that each energy bin is represented by a first isogonic arc having a first radius and a second isogonic arc having a second radius, wherein the first radius is less than the second radius; said multi-channel pulse height analyzer is configured to determine the energy bin widths and to represent a virtual two-dimensional space between the first isogonic arc and the second isogonic arc and having an inter-arc strip configuration.