On the Move Compton Backscattering Scanning

Compton backscattering X-rays imaging (CBI) allows the identification of hazardous organic materials by imaging the scattered photons returning from the body after this is illuminated with X-rays. Most of the commercial Compton scanners deployed in airports, base their functionality on a pixel-per-pixel sequential scanning, which is realized by the combination of a fan-beam collimator and a rotating chopper-wheel. This paper explores a simple and faster approach, coined compressive X-ray Compton backscattering imager (CXBI), where the body is illuminated with a static coded cone-beam pattern at once and several snapshots are acquired while the mask, or equivalently the body is translated at constant speed.