The inventive
body scanner is used to screen persons entering a security controlled area for the presence of security threats hidden under the clothing, such as guns, knifes, explosives and contraband. The Invention is an improvement on prior art body scanners that operate primarily by acquiring
backscatter x-
ray images, but only acquire transmission images over a limited part of the person's body. These prior art systems provide x-
ray sources on the anterior and posterior sides of the person being screened, and x-
ray sensitive detectors on the sides of these x-ray sources. While sufficient for
backscatter imaging, the gaps between these detectors results in blind areas in the transmission images, resulting in lower ability to detect security threats hidden under the clothing. The present Invention overcomes these limitations of the prior art by providing x-ray sensitive
detector on the outside of the x-ray sources. That is, the pair of x-ray sources are located within the pair of x-ray detectors, and the person being screened is located within the pair of x-ray sources. In conjunction with this imaging geometry, spatial offsets in the location of the x-ray sources provide effectively full transmission coverage for transmission imaging.