A straight-line trajectory tomography method based on multiple tilted X-ray cone-beams

A straight-line trajectory tomography method, based on multiple tilted X-ray cone-beams formed by multiple sources and detectors, is investigated. In this method, multiple cone-beams are fixed and tilted at different positions and only the object translates along a straight-line trajectory. This kind of imaging method may have potential applications in industry testing and security inspections. As is known, projection data from a straight-line trajectory based on single cone-beam are incomplete and their reconstruction suffers from a limited-angle problem. The proposed straight-line trajectory tomography method based on multiple tilted X-ray cone-beams can be used to compensate these deficiencies. To reconstruct images, the filtered back-projection (FBP) reconstruction algorithm for the middle plane is first derived from the Fourier slice theorem. It is then extended to non-middle planes with the Feldkamp-Davis-Kress (FDK) approximation. Numerical simulations validate our method.