Radiological inspections, in general, are the nondestructive
testing (NDT) methods to detect the bulk of explosives in large
objects. In contrast to personal luggage, cargo or building
components constitute a complexity that may significantly hinder the
detection of a threat by conventional X-ray transmission
radiography. In this article, a novel X-ray backscatter technique is
presented for detecting suspicious objects in a densely packed large
object with only a single sided access. It consists of an X-ray
backscatter camera with a special twisted slit collimator for
imaging backscattering objects. The new X-ray backscatter camera is
not only imaging the objects based on their densities but also by
including the influences of surrounding objects. This unique feature
of the X-ray backscatter camera provides new insights in identifying
the internal features of the inspected object. Experimental mock-ups
were designed imitating containers with threats among a complex
packing as they may be encountered in reality. We investigated the
dependence of the quality of the X-ray backscatter image on (a) the
exposure time, (b) multiple exposures, (c) the distance between
object and slit camera, and (d) the width of the slit. At the end,
the significant advantages of the presented X-ray backscatter camera
in the context of aviation and port security are discussed.
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