A method, system and apparatus for processing a radiographic image of a
scanned object is disclosed. A pixel offset correction is performed in
integer format on the radiographic image using saturation arithmetic to
produce an image in integer format with any negative corrected values
clipped to a value of zero. The resulting pixels are converted to
floating point format and the converted pixels are multiplied by a gain
factor. Optionally the resulting pixels are recursively averaged with
previous results. The resulting pixels are converted to integer format
and the converted pixel values are clamped to a maximum value using
saturation arithmetic. Non-functional pixel correction is performed in
integer format and the resulting pixel values are clamped to a maximum
value using saturation arithmetic. An optional processing path replaces
the recursive average by a linear average. The resulting pixel values are
optionally filtered to enhance features of interest. The resulting pixel
value is mapped in integer format to a palette index to establish an
output pixel intensity having one of many intensity levels. The optional
processing is controlled through the hardware interface of a real-time
image controller as images are acquired.