Patent Document ID: 7492856
Application ID: 11295954
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for providing a projection image directly from data acquired by a CT scanner, the method comprising: acquiring data corresponding to an object that is scanned by the CT scanner, wherein the acquired data is generated by an x-ray source that projects a fan beam of x-rays from a plurality of x-ray source positions relative to the object towards a detector array on an opposite side of a gantry of the CT scanner as the object is passed through an opening in the gantry, the acquired data comprising a reconstruction volume; selecting an imaging plane that intersects the reconstruction volume, at least a portion of the selected imaging plane defined within the reconstruction volume and corresponding to a slice of the object; dividing the selected imaging plane into a plurality of rows and columns to define a grid of points corresponding to the selected imaging plane, and for each point in the grid of points: determining an x-ray source position within the plurality of x-ray source positions wherein a ray extending from the x-ray source position to the grid point is closest to a perpendicular orientation with respect to the selected imaging plane; extending a line from the x-ray source position through the grid point to intersect the detector array at a detector location; extracting from the data a data point corresponding to the x-ray source position and the detector location; and computing an image pixel value based on the extracted data point; and displaying a projection image based upon image pixel values associated with the grid of points corresponding to the selected imaging plane.