Forward and inverse problem solutions for three dimensional electrical impedance tomography

At present almost all measured boundary data in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) are collected via a single ring of electrodes placed around a three dimensional body. Despite the fact that these data originate from a three dimensional object, image reconstruction proceeds on the assumption that these data originated from a two dimensional object. In severe cases the complex three dimensional structure and resulting current flow lead to gross image distortions when images are reconstructed using existing two dimensional algorithms from these data. Since no effective means exist to collimate the data arising from a three dimensional object and hence provide a two dimensional image uncontaminated from off-plane structure there appears to be little option but to address the third dimension aspects of EIT. This paper compares methods for generating the solution to the forward problem for a right circular cylinder with 16 drive electrodes evenly spaced in a plane around the cylinder, interleaved with 16 voltage measurement electrodes. It assesses the implications of these different methods on the resulting image reconstructions.