The positioning problem in biomagnetic measurements: A solution for arrays of superconducting sensors

We propose a system to measure automatically the location of the subject's head in the reference frame identified by an array of superconducting biomagnetic sensors (the same procedure may be employed for Cardiac studies with little or no modification). The system consists of small reference coils (magnetic dipoles) to be properly positioned on the subject's head. The coils are driven by a known current signal. The generated magnetic fields are measured by the superconducting array and decoded by a suitable algorhythm which calculates the relative position of the coils with respect to the array itself. In this paper we present a schematic of the system. The results of a computer simulation, carried out for different types of superconducting detection coils are also illustrated.