Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography

Abstract

A dynamic volume imaging based on the principle of electrical capacitance tomography (ECT), namely, electrical capacitance volume tomography (ECVT), has been developed in this study. The technique generates, from the measured capacitance, a whole volumetric image of the region enclosed by the geometrically three-dimensional capacitance sensor. This development enables a real-time, 3-D imaging of a moving object or a real-time volume imaging (4-D) to be realized. Moreover, it allows total interrogation of the whole volume within the domain (vessel or conduit) of an arbitrary shape or geometry. The development of the ECVT imaging technique primarily encloses the 3-D capacitance sensor design and the volume image reconstruction technique. The electrical field variation in three-dimensional space forms a basis for volume imaging through different shapes and configurations of ECT sensor electrodes. The image reconstruction scheme is established by implementing the neural-network multicriterion optimization image reconstruction (NN-MOIRT), developed earlier by the authors for the 2-D ECT. The image reconstruction technique is modified by introducing into the algorithm a 3-D sensitivity matrix to replace the 2-D sensitivity matrix in conventional 2-D ECT, and providing additional network constraints including 3-to-2-D image matching function. The additional constraints further enhance the accuracy of the image reconstruction algorithm. The technique has been successfully verified over actual objects in the experimental conditions