Patent ID: 8270562

Claim:
An imaging system comprising: a rotatable gantry having an opening therein to receive a subject to be scanned and configured to rotate about a central axis in a rotation direction; a first x-ray source coupled to the rotatable gantry at a first position, wherein the first position is offset from the central axis of the rotatable gantry by a first distance; a second x-ray source coupled to the rotatable gantry at a second position, wherein the second position is offset from the central axis of the rotatable gantry by a second distance, offset from the first position in a direction coincident with the rotation direction, and offset from the first position in a direction parallel to the central axis; a first rotor coupled to the first x-ray source; a second rotor coupled to the second x-ray source, wherein the second rotor is constructed to rotate independently of the first rotor; a detector array comprising a plurality of detectors coupled to the rotatable gantry; and a computer programmed to: cause the first x-ray source to project a first fan beam of x-rays toward the detector array; cause the second x-ray source to project a second fan beam of x-rays toward the detector array; collect a first set of image data corresponding to x-rays of the first fan beam; collect a second set of image data corresponding to x-rays of the second fan beam; identify a first effective cone angle of the first fan beam of x-rays corresponding to a given detector of the plurality of detectors; identify a second effective cone angle of the second fan beam of x-rays corresponding to the given detector of the plurality of detectors; compare the first and second effective cone angles; if the first effective cone angle is less than the second effective cone angle, preferentially weight image data of the first set of image data corresponding to the given detector during image reconstruction; and if the second effective cone angle is less than the first effective cone angle, preferentially weight image data of the second set of image data corresponding to the given detector during image reconstruction.