Patent ID: 7103143

Claim:
An X-ray examination method including an exposure control system, comprising the acts of: exposing an object under investigation to incident x-rays from an X-ray source; detecting a relative amount of attenuation passing through the object and incident upon a surface of an X-ray detector and generating a detector signal therefrom; and controlling the exposure of said X-ray source by an exposure control signal, the exposure control signal being derived from a plurality of brightness signal levels in a measuring field derived from respective groups of sensor elements, wherein the measuring field is selected by said exposure control system from a test image formed by said exposure control system, wherein magnitudes of said brightness signal levels are adjustable, and wherein a number of pixels of said test image is smaller than a number of pixels of an X-ray image acquired by said X-ray detector when said X-ray source carries out an exposure with a high X-ray dose.