Filtered Backprojection Inversion of the Cone Beam Transform for a General Class of Curves

We extend a cone beam transform inversion formula, proposed earlier for helices by one of the authors, to a general class of curves. The inversion formula remains efficient, because filtering is shift-invariant and is performed along a one-parametric family of lines. The conditions that describe the class are very natural. Curves C are smooth, without self-intersections, have positive curvature and torsion, do not bend too much, and do not admit lines which are tangent to C at one point and intersect C at another point. The notions of PI lines and PI segments are generalized, and their properties are studied. The domain U is found, where PI lines are guaranteed to be unique. Results of numerical experiments demonstrate very good image quality.