Robust Digital Image Reconstruction via the Discrete Fourier Slice Theorem

The discrete Fourier slice theorem is an important tool for signal processing, especially in the context of the exact reconstruction of an image from its projected views. This paper presents a digital reconstruction algorithm to recover a two dimensional (2-D) image from sets of discrete one dimensional (1-D) projected views. The proposed algorithm has the same computational complexity as the 2-D fast Fourier transform and remains robust to the addition of significant levels of noise. A mapping of discrete projections is constructed to allow aperiodic projections to be converted to projections that assume periodic image boundary conditions. Each remapped projection forms a 1-D slice of the 2-D Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) that requires no interpolation. The discrete projection angles are selected so that the set of remapped 1-D slices exactly tile the 2-D DFT space. This permits direct and mathematically exact reconstruction of the image via the inverse DFT. The reconstructions are artefact free, except for projection inconsistencies that arise from any additive and remapped noise. We also present methods to generate compact sets of rational projection angles that exactly tile the 2-D DFT space. The improvement in noise suppression that comes with the reconstruction of larger sized images needs to be balanced against the corresponding increase in computation time.