A neural network prediction has been provided for predicting radiation exposure and/or Air-Kerma at a predefined arbitrary distance during an x-ray exposure; and for predicting radiation exposure and/or Air-Kerma area product for a radiographic x-ray exposure. The Air-Kerma levels are predicted directly from the x-ray exposure parameters. The method or model is provided to predict the radiation exposure or Air-Kerma for an arbitrary radiographic x-ray exposure by providing input variables (36,38,40) to identify the spectral characteristics of the x-ray beam, providing a neural net (32) which has been trained to calculate the exposure or Air-Kerma value, and by scaling (34) the neural net output by the calibrated tube efficiency (52), and the actual current through the x-ray tube and the duration of the exposure. The prediction for exposure/Air-Kerma further applies (50) the actual source-toobject distance, and the prediction for exposure/AirKerma area product further applies (54) the actual imaged field area at a source-to-image distance. <IMAGE>
Neural network prediction for radiographic x-ray exposures