Fast Back-Projection Algorithms for Image Formation in Computer Tomography and Synthetic Aperture Ra

Professor Munson is being considered for the Chair’s position in the
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Everyone is welcome to attend.

After a brief review of computer tomography (CT) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR), we describe a new back-projection approach to image formation in these systems. Unlike standard back-projection, the new scheme uses hierarchical decomposition, somewhat like the FFT. We specifically consider fast algorithms for fan-beam CT (fan-beam is the standard geometry for clinical scanners) and demonstrate 50-fold computational savings for images of realistic size. For SAR, we consider bistatic imaging (separate transmitter and receiver) for the near-field case where wavefront curvature must be handled. Once again, enormous computational savings are possible for images of typical size.