Patent Document ID: 9170215
Application ID: 13660235
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of imaging a heterogeneous object, the method comprising: positioning the heterogeneous object within a fixture having a chamber, the heterogeneous object comprising a first non-gaseous portion and a second non-gaseous portion, the first non-gaseous portion having the property of attenuating x-rays more than the second non-gaseous portion, the second non-gaseous portion being substantially invisible to X-rays; adding an inert gas to the chamber, the inert gas comprising at least one of argon, xenon, and krypton; sealing the chamber to substantially contain the gas within the chamber; increasing, after adding the inert gas, the pressure within the sealed chamber as a function of the density of the second non-gaseous portion of the object, the density of the gas increasing with the increased pressure within the sealed chamber; penetrating x-rays through the object to produce a plurality of images of the object, the pressurized gas contrasting with the first non-gaseous portion and the second non-gaseous portion of the object in at least some of the plurality of images; generating a three-dimensional representation of the object using the contrast produced by the pressurized gas in the plurality of images, the three-dimensional representation of the object showing topological details of the object; and measuring at least one of the topological object details using the three-dimensional representation of the object.