A Logarithmic X-Ray Imaging Model for Baggage Inspection: Simulation and Object Detection

In the last years, many computer vision algorithms have been developed for X-ray testing tasks. Some of them deal with baggage inspection, in which the aim is to detect automatically target objects. The progress in automated baggage inspection, however, is modest and very limited compared to what is needed because X-ray screening systems are still being manipulated by human inspectors. In this work, we present an X-ray imaging model that can separate foreground from background in baggage screening. The model can be used in two main tasks: i) Simulation of new X-ray images, where simulated images can be used in training programs for human inspectors, or can be used to enhance datasets for computer vision algorithms. ii) Detection of (threat) objects, where new algorithms can be employed to perform automated baggage inspection or to aid an user in the inspection task showing potential threats. In our model, rather than a multiplication of foreground and background, that is typically used in X-ray imaging, we propose the addition of logarithmic images. This allows the use of linear strategies to superimpose images of threat objects onto X-ray images and the use of sparse representations in order to segment target objects. In our experiments, we simulate new X-ray images of handguns, shuriken and razor blades, in which it is impossible to distinguish simulated and real X-ray images. In addition, we show in our experiments the effective detection of shuriken, razor blades and handguns using the proposed algorithm outperforming some alternative state-of- the-art techniques.