The subject matter disclosed herein relates to patient imaging systems, and more specifically, to portable X-ray imaging systems. In a first embodiment, a patient imaging system (10) is presented. The patient imaging system (10) includes an X-ray source (14) configured to emit X-rays and a wireless X-ray detector (18) configured to detect the emitted X-rays and acquire patient image data. The patient imaging system (10) also includes an acquisition control system (12) configured to initialize and prepare the patient imaging system (10) for X-ray emission and detection. The acquisition control system (12) is also configured to receive the acquired patient image data from the X-ray detector (18), and to non-deterministically control the operation of the X-ray source (14) and the wireless X-ray detector (18). The patient imaging system (10) also includes one or more user interfaces (16, 20) configured to instruct the acquisition control system (12) when a user is ready for the patient imaging system (10) to initialize, to prepare for X-ray emission and detection, and to begin X-ray emission and detection.
