Adaptive center determination for effective suppression of ring artifacts in tomography images

Abstract

Ring artifacts on tomogram slices hinder image interpretation. They are caused by minor variation in the response from individual elements in a two dimensional (2D) X-ray detector. Polar space decreases the suppression complexity by transforming the rings on the tomogram slice to linear stripes. However, it requires that the center of rings lie at the origin of polar transformation. If this is not the case, all methods employing polar space become ineffective. We developed a method based on Gaussian localization of the ring center in Hough parameter space to assign the origin for the polar transformation. Thus, obtained linear stripes can be effectively suppressed by already existing methods. This effectively suppresses ring artifacts in the data from a variety of experimental setups, sample types and also handles tomograms that are previously cropped. This approach functions automatically, avoids the need for assumptions and preserves fine details, all critical for synchrotron based nanometer resolution tomography.