Interactive and Adaptive Data Acquisition System for Use with Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography

Abstract

A control system and data acquisition system for an electrical capacitance tomography sensor comprised of a sensor having a plurality of electrodes, where each electrode is further comprised of a plurality of capacitance segments. Each of the capacitance segments of each electrode can be individually addressed to focus the electric field intensity or sensitivity to desired regions of the electrodes and the sensor.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to [provisional / co-pending] U.S. Application No. 61 / 828,945 filed on May 30, 2013 and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIVE FIELD[0002]Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is the reconstruction of material concentrations of dielectric physical properties in the imaging domain by inversion of capacitance data from a capacitance sensor. Volume capacitance imaging or ECVT is the direct 3D reconstruction of volume concentration or physical properties in the imaging domain utilizing 3D features in the ECVT sensor design.[0003]Dynamic ECVT is a technology that senses measured capacitances between a sensor plates to generate a whole volume image of the region. ECVT technology has been applied in providing images of objects moving through a pipe for example. ECVT has provided insights into multiphase flow phenomena in many industrial processes often in a combination of ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent is about a system for tomographic imaging using electrical capacitance. The system uses an adaptive and interactive data acquisition system that can focus on different parts of the body for better image quality and resolution. The system can also calibrate and adjust itself based on the flow of data over time. This allows for self-diagnostics and automatic correction of readings. The system also uses a reference capacitor to compare measured values to and can measure capacitances accurately by comparing them to parameters of the reference capacitor. Another version of the system uses an attenuator to isolate segments of a plate and measures collective capacitance of an adaptive sensor with multiple excitation frequencies. Overall, the system described in this patent provides improved and efficient tomographic imaging for medical and other applications.

Problems solved by technology

Systems developed thus far are not flexible enough to cope with modern applications of capacitance tomography sensors.

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