An apparatus and method for optimizing computer tomography images obtained from any of a number of different standard computer tomography scanning devices. The apparatus and method incorporate computer-aided design data for an object being scanned into a system for establishing nominal scanning beam intensities and nominal scanning detector sensitivities that ultimately compensate for non-anomalous variations in beam path characteristics. Particularly adapted for optimizing scan images on objects with large length-to-width ratios, the present invention identifies significant deviations from some normal baseline beam path in advance of a scan and modifies beam intensity and detector sensitivity to bring the projected beam into a nominal range. Thereafter, deviations from this referenced nominal beam can be better identified as anomalies within the object being scanned, that are of interest.
Glenn M. Light; Daniel Schneberk