Dynamic electrical impedance imaging of a chest phantom using the Kalman filter.

A dynamic complex impedance imaging technique is developed with the aid of the linearized Kalman filter (LKF) for real-time reconstruction of the human chest. The forward problem is solved by an analytical method based on the separation of variables and Fourier series. The inverse problem is treated as a state estimation problem. The nonlinear measurement equation is linearized about the best homogeneous impedivity value as an initial guess, and the impedivity distribution is estimated with the aid of the Kalman estimator. The Kalman gain matrix is pre-computed and stored off-line to minimize the on-line computational time. Simulation and phantom experiment are reported to illustrate the reconstruction performances in the sense of spatio-temporal resolution in a simplified geometry of the human chest.