Patent ID: 8351672

Claim:
An inspection apparatus, comprising; a housing including: an x-ray source for generating an x-ray beam; a first laser for generating a first laser beam; a second laser for generating a second laser beam, wherein the first and second lasers are placed on each side of said x-ray source, wherein said x-ray beam and said first and second laser beams are substantially coplanar, wherein the first and second laser beams overlap each other, and wherein said housing further includes: a first window; a pair of cameras; a second window; and a third window, wherein said x-ray beam and said first and second laser beams pass through said first window, wherein each camera of said pair of cameras is located on one side of said x-ray source, respectively, and wherein one camera of said pair of cameras is oriented towards said second window and the other camera of said pair of cameras is oriented towards said third window, said inspection apparatus further comprising: a conveyor for carrying object(s) for inspection; an x-ray line scan camera that is placed under the conveyor and is aligned with the x-ray beam for capturing an x-ray image of said object(s) radiated by the x-ray beam, an encoder that is attached to said conveyer and sends conveyor movement signals to a computer; and a rejection device for removing object(s) off said conveyor; wherein said pair of cameras capture image data of said object(s) when irradiated by said first and second laser beams, said computer including; means for receiving said signals from said encoder; means for synchronizing said pair of cameras and said x-ray line scan camera based on said received encoder signals; means for receiving image data of said object(s) from said pair of cameras and an x-ray image from said x-ray line scan camera; means for generating an x-ray image of said object(s); means for calculating intensity, inverse intensity, and x-ray absorption coefficient of said x-ray image; means for generating a depth image of said object(s), said depth image having a thickness intensity; means for calculating a virtual x-ray intensity image of said object(s), wherein said virtual x-ray image is obtained through a regression analysis based on said x-ray absorption coefficient and said thickness intensity; means for subtracting said inverse intensity of said x-ray image from said virtual x-ray image to detect bone, bone fragments or foreign materials in the object(s); and means for generating a rejection signal when it is detected that said object(s) include bones, bone fragments or foreign materials; wherein the rejection signal is sent by said computer to said rejection device to remove said object(s) detected with bone, bone fragments or foreign materials from said conveyor.