Designing of Lab View Based Electrical Capacitance Tomography System for the Imaging of Bone Using NI ELVIS and NI USB DAQ 6009

Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is a method for the determination of the dielectric permittivity in the interior of the object based on exterior capacitance measurements. The principle is based on inter-electrode capacitance measurements which are done by placing electrodes around the dielectric medium which is generally made of PVC and the medium that is to be imaged is placed inside this PVC cylinder. As we know capacitance varies with respect to dielectric permittivity, area of the plates and distance between the plates. In this technique area and distance between the electrodes are kept constant, so the only parameter that influences the capacitance detected is the dielectric permittivity of the medium inside there by making this technique a suitable method for distinguishing substances of differing dielectric properties. . This technique has got several advantages such as low cost, rapid response, high robustness and no radiation hazard. Till now it is used in Oil Industries for detecting bubbles in the oil flow based on the difference in their dielectric permittivity. The aim of this paper is to apply this technique in medical application by modeling an ECT system that can be used for imaging of the bone, as human tissues shows a change in the dielectric properties, which will thereby open a new path in the field of medical imaging. The entire technique is implemented with the help of LabVIEW. Results obtained shows that this technique can be used for the imaging of bone.