US Patent 7623614 Apparatus for inspecting objects using coded beam

An apparatus for inspecting objects utilizes a fan beam or flood beam to illuminate the inspected region of the object. A modulator, which may take the form of a movable mask, dynamically encodes the beam so that each segment of the inspected region receives varying amounts of radiation according to a predetermined temporal sequence. The resultant signal produced by a backscatter detector or optional transmission detector receiving radiation from the object is decoded to recover spatial information so that an image of the inspected region may be constructed.