Independent Component Analysis for Removing X-ray Scatter in X-ray Images

Cone beam CT has a capability for the 3-dimensional imaging of large volumes with isotropic resolution. But the main limitation of cone beam CT is a larger amount of X-ray scatter. The X-ray scatter may enhance the noise in the reconstructed images. In this paper, we propose a new method based on independent component analysis (ICA) for removing the X-ray scatter in the observed X-ray images. The observed X-ray images can be considered as a linear mixture of scattered X-ray and primary X-ray. We show that the scattered X-ray and the primary X-ray can be blindly separated from two observed X-ray images by the use of ICA. The results indicate that the proposed method is effective for removing X-ray scatter from the X-ray images.