Advanced Concepts in Multi-Dimensional Radiation Detection and Imaging

Abstract

Recent developments in the detector fabrication, signal readout, and data processing enable new concepts in radiation detection that are relevant for applications ranging from fundamental physics to medicine as well as nuclear security and safety. We present recent progress in multi-dimensional radiation detection and imaging in the Berkeley Applied Nuclear Physics program. It is based on the ability to reconstruct scenes in three dimensions and fuse it with gamma-ray image information. We are using the High-Efficiency Multimode Imager HEMI in its Compton imaging mode and combining it with contextual sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect or visual cameras. This new concept of volumetric imaging or scene data fusion provides unprecedented capabilities in radiation detection and imaging relevant for the detection and mapping of radiological and nuclear materials. This concept brings us one step closer to the seeing the world with gamma-ray eyes.

Stereo Vision-Based Gamma-Ray Imaging for 3D Scene Data Fusion

“…As of other additional works, a series of more advanced imaging systems with sophisticated scene data fusion techniques have been proposed. Some enabled new means in registering and processing contextual information in realtime [10]. Barnowski et al [3] discuss a near real-time gamma-ray imaging approach using Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for volumetric reconstructions of unknown environments.…”

“…The motivation of 3D visualization of gamma-rays is to bring the naked human eye a one-step closer to seeing and identifying their contamination within the surrounding environment [10]. Previously described state-ofthe-art methods use multi-sensors to capture contextual scene/environment data and exploit real-time mapping theories to fuse their reconstructions with spatial distributions of radioisotopes.…”

“…Notwithstanding coded aperture-based, collimator-based, and Compton scattering-based imaging approaches have been highly discussed in active radiation detection, they have shown very selective and/or less comprehensive visualization capabilities. In order to derive a better trade-off in gamma-ray imaging and visualizing, integration of many conceptual sensors has been proposed; providing new means in identifying matching distributions of gamma-ray sources with physical objects [10]. This lays the foundation of a new pathway for bringing the naked human eye a one-step closer to seeing and identifying spatial source distributions with more details in 3D world.…”