CONE-BEAM TOMOGRAPHY - RECENT ADVANCES AND A TUTORIAL REVIEW

Cone-beam tomography is the science of forming images by inverting three-dimensional divergent cone-beam ray-sum data sets. The impetus for its application is its three-dimensional data collection abilities, which result in (1) significant reduction in the time needed to collect a sufficient number of data to produce a three-dimensional image and (2) elimination of the inaccuracy due to misalignment of cross sectional images. On the other hand, the divergence of cone-beam data has hindered its application. Because of the divergence, the theory that has been developed for fan-beam and parallel two- and three-dimensional tomography does not provide a totally adequate means for analyzing or inverting cone-beam data. A new theory that takes into account the three-dimensional divergence of cone-beam data needs to be developed. In 1985, a paper was published in which several advances in the theory of cone-beam tomography were made. A tutorial review of the results given in the 1985 paper will be given.