Space adaptive reconstruction technique for adaptive electrical capacitance volume tomography

A system for tomographic imaging in a pipe, tube or other object comprising:

• a sensor, comprising at least four electrodes, positioned in a predetermined arrangement relative to each other around the pipe, tube, or object;
• each of the electrodes comprising a plurality of capacitance plate segments, each of the capacitance plate segments of each of the electrodes defining a capacitor when paired with a corresponding capacitance plate segment of one of the other electrodes;
• a voltage source, arranged to impart a voltage to selected capacitance plate segments, a sensitivity of the sensor being controlled by at least one of:
• the amount and the distribution of the imparted voltage applied to the selected capacitance plate segments;
• a measuring circuit, connected to each of the at least four electrodes to detect a capacitance of any of the capacitors between any selected pair of the electrodes though currents induced in the measuring circuit;
• and
• a first processing system, in communication with the measuring circuit, the first processing system programmed with instructions for executing on the first processing system to:
• 1) convert capacitance data collected therefrom into an image;
• 2) analyze information provided by an image reconstruction of a peripheral region of an imaging domain of the sensor;
• and 3) provide control signals to the sensor to increase the resolution at a center region of the imaging domain of the sensor based on the prior image reconstruction of the peripheral region;
• 4) obtain image reconstruction information for the center region of the imaging domain;
• and 5) combine the image reconstruction information for the peripheral region and the center region to obtain a combined image of the imaging domain.