Patent ID: 7139367

Claim:
A signal processing method for processing signals output from an array of N X-ray radiation detectors arranged to receive X-ray radiation emanating from an object irradiated by a source beam of X-ray radiation from an X-ray radiation source incident upon an object, said method comprising the steps of; a. repetitively sampling P times a detector channel output voltage indicative of X-ray radiation incident upon each of N detectors of an array of detectors, where P is an integer, b. accumulating a value proportional to a sum of said P samples of each said output voltage in a separate one of N accumulators, where N is an integer, and c. outputting from each of said N accumulators an output signal having a value proportional to said accumulated value, d. concatenating said output signals to form a column array of said output signals each of which has a value proportional to X-ray radiation incident upon a corresponding individual detector of said array of detectors, said column array of values being indicative of an image slice of said object incident upon said detector array, e. causing relative scanning motion between said object and said X-ray radiation source, in a direction transverse to a direction which said detectors are arranged, said detector array outputting a sequence of signal values corresponding to image slices of an object formed on said detector array, said sequence of image slices corresponding to side-by-side image slices of said object, said sequence of output image slices being formed during a scan line time period approximating that of a time period equal to a width of said detectors-divided by a velocity of said scanning motion, f. sequentially arranging side-by-side a plurality of column arrays of signal values to form a two-dimensional array of signal values which is indicative of a two-dimensional view of adjacent image slices of said object, and g. wherein said step of outputting from said N accumulators an output signals having values proportional to accumulated signal values indicative of a first in a sequence of object image slices is performed at least partially simultaneously with said step of sampling detector channel output voltages corresponding to a different object image slice.