Projection-Based Metal-Artifact Reduction for Industrial 3D X-ray Computed Tomography

Information

• Publication Type: Journal Paper with Conference Talk
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Visualization Group
• Date: December 2011
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
• Volume: 17
• Number: 12
• Location: Providence, RI, USA
• Lecturer: Artem Amirkhanov
• ISSN: 1077-2626
• Event: IEEE VisWeek 2011
• Conference date: 23. October 2011 – 28. October 2011
• Pages: 2193 – 2202
• Keywords: Metal-artifact reduction, multi-material components, 3D X-ray computed tomography, visual analysis

Abstract

Multi-material components, which contain metal parts surrounded by plastic materials, are highly interesting for inspection using industrial 3D X-ray computed tomography (3DXCT). Examples of this application scenario are connectors or housings with metal inlays in the electronic or automotive industry. A major problem of this type of components is the presence of metal, which causes streaking artifacts and distorts the surrounding media in the reconstructed volume. Streaking artifacts and dark-band artifacts around metal components significantly influence the material characterization (especially for the plastic components). In specific cases these artifacts even prevent a further analysis. Due to the nature and the different characteristics of artifacts, the development of an efficient artifact-reduction technique in reconstruction-space is rather complicated. In this paper we present a projection-space pipeline for metal-artifacts reduction. The proposed technique first segments the metal in the spatial domain of the reconstructed volume in order to separate it from the other materials. Then metal parts are forward-projected on the set of projections in a way that metal-projection regions are treated as voids. Subsequently the voids, which are left by the removed metal, are interpolated in the 2D projections. Finally, the metal is inserted back into the reconstructed 3D volume during the fusion stage. We present a visual analysis tool, allowing for interactive parameter estimation of the metal segmentation. The results of the proposed artifact-reduction technique are demonstrated on a test part as well as on real world components. For these specimens we achieve a significant reduction of metal artifacts, allowing an enhanced material characterization.

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BibTeX

@article{amirkhanov-2011,
  title =      "Projection-Based Metal-Artifact Reduction for Industrial 3D
               X-ray Computed Tomography",
  author =     "Artem Amirkhanov and Christoph Heinzl and Michael Reiter and
               Johann Kastner and Eduard Gr\"{o}ller",
  year =       "2011",
  abstract =   "Multi-material components, which contain metal parts
               surrounded by plastic materials, are highly interesting for
               inspection using industrial 3D X-ray computed tomography
               (3DXCT). Examples of this application scenario are
               connectors or housings with metal inlays in the electronic
               or automotive industry. A  major problem of this type of
               components is the presence of metal, which causes streaking
               artifacts and distorts the surrounding media in the
               reconstructed volume. Streaking artifacts and dark-band
               artifacts around metal components significantly influence
               the material characterization (especially for the plastic
               components). In specific cases these artifacts even prevent
               a further analysis. Due to the nature and the different
               characteristics of artifacts, the development of an
               efficient artifact-reduction technique in
               reconstruction-space is rather complicated. In this paper we
               present a projection-space pipeline for metal-artifacts
               reduction. The proposed technique first segments the metal
               in the spatial domain of the reconstructed volume in order
               to separate it from the other materials. Then metal parts
               are forward-projected on the set of projections in a way
               that metal-projection regions are treated as voids.
               Subsequently the voids, which are left by the removed metal,
               are interpolated in the 2D projections. Finally, the metal
               is inserted back into the reconstructed 3D volume during the
               fusion stage.  We present a visual analysis tool, allowing
               for interactive parameter estimation of the metal
               segmentation. The results of the proposed artifact-reduction
               technique are demonstrated on a test part as well as on real
               world components. For these specimens we achieve a
               significant reduction of metal artifacts, allowing an
               enhanced material characterization.",
  month =      dec,
  journal =    "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics",
  volume =     "17",
  number =     "12",
  issn =       "1077-2626",
  pages =      "2193--2202",
  keywords =   "Metal-artifact reduction, multi-material components, 3D
               X-ray computed tomography, visual analysis",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2011/amirkhanov-2011/",
}