3-D visualization of X-ray objects using stereo line sensors

This paper presents a 3-D visualization technique using stereo radioactive images to provide an efficient inspection of fast moving cargo objects. The proposed technique can be used for such objects which a CT or MRI cannot inspect due to a restricted scan environment. Stereo radioactive images are acquired from specially designed equipment which consists of an X-ray source, linear radioactive sensors, and a moving stage. Two radioactive sensors were installed so that rectified stereo X-ray images of objects were acquired. Using the stereo X-ray images, we ran a matching algorithm to find the correspondences between two images and to reconstruct 3-D shapes of the objects. The objects were put in a parallelepiped box to simulate a cargo inspection. Three real objects are tested and reconstructed. Due to the inherent ambiguity in the stereo X-ray images, we reconstructed 3-D shapes with the edges of the objects. The experimental results show the proposed technique can provide an efficient visualization for a cargo inspection.