Development of a low-cost computed tomography image processing system
Simon H. Hughes, Robert E. Slocum · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1991
In order to develop a computed tomography (CT) scanner that is substantially lower in cost than those currently available it was necessary to create an image processor that could meet the high CT data processing requirements while being compact and inexpensive. We designed and developed an image processing card that operates on the AT bus of a PC-compatible microcomputer. This card uses the Intel i860 RISC processor and custom hardware to allow simultaneous data collection correction and reconstruction. The design uses an architecture that allows separate image processors to work individually and in parallel so that additional processors can be added to speed up image reconstruction with no reprogramming. A single processor can reconstruct a 512 x 512 x 12-bit CT image in about 15 seconds a fully configured system can reduce the processing time to under 2 seconds. This processor is easily athptable to future CT data collection applications. 1.