Through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Los Alamos National Laboratory and HYTEC, Inc., a portable 3-D Computed Tomography (CT) system has been developed that dramatically reduces the overall complexity and time-to-completion for performing CT studies. The system incorporates an amorphous silicon flat-panel detector, coupled motion control and state of the art software to produce high quality CT results. All alignment, image calibration and radiation exposure monitoring is handled in software, thereby, eliminating the need for precise mechanical positioning during setup or a highly stable source of radiation. The image acquisition hardware occupies a minimal 30-inch x 48-inch footprint and is mounted on a portable cart for transportation between multiple X-ray sites. The software is built on the Windows NT/2K operating system for maximum flexibility in today's industry, and offers an unprecedented user interface designed for technicians and operators who have minimal computer training. Multiple reconstruction methods (parallel, fan and cone beam) are provided and can be run in a parallel-processed mode on any number of Windows NT/2K computers to decrease reconstruction time. Visualization software offers 2-D and 3-D viewing including slice animation and volume rendering of entire objects
