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Dec 26

Parameters for the estimator

You may ask, what is the fundamental advantage of the new estimator? Yes, it is faster than the iterative method but so what? With Moore’s law, we can just throw silicon at the problem by doing the processing in parallel. I have two responses. The first is that not only is the iterative estimator slow but it also takes a random time to complete the calculation. This is a substantial problem since CT scanners are real-time systems. The calculations have to be done in a fixed time or the data are lost. The gantry cannot be stopped to wait for a long iteration to complete!
The second problem is that, as it has been implemented in the research literature, the iterative estimator requires measurement of the x-ray tube spectrum and the detector energy response to compute the likelihood for a given measurement. These are difficult measurements that cannot be done at most medical institutions. Because of drift of the system components, the measurements have to be done periodically to assure accurate results. There may be a way to implement an iterative estimator with simpler measurements but I am not aware of it.
In this post, I will show how the parameters required for the new estimator can be determined from measurements on a phantom placed in the system. This could be done easily by personnel at medical institutions and is similar to quality assurance measurements now done routinely on other medical systems.

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