Cone beam CT systems are being deployed in large numbers for small animal imaging, dental imaging, and other specialty applications. A new high-precision method for cone beam CT system calibration is presented in this paper. It uses multiple projection images acquired from rotating point-like objects (metal ball bearings) and the angle information generated from the rotating gantry system is also used. It is assumed that the whole system has a mechanically stable rotation center and that the detector does not have severe out-of-plane rotation (< 2°). Simple geometrical relationships between the orbital paths of individual BBs and five system parameters were derived. Computer simulations were employed to validate the accuracy of this method in the presence of noise. Equal or higher accuracy was achieved compared with previous methods. This method was implemented for the geometrical calibration of both a micro CT scanner and a breast CT scanner. The reconstructed tomographic images demonstrated that the proposed method is robust and easy to implement with high precision.
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