Beltrami-net: domain-independent deep D-bar learning for absolute imaging with electrical impedance tomography (a-EIT)

Objective: To develop, and demonstrate the feasibility of, a novel image reconstruction method for absolute electrical impedance tomography (a-EIT) that pairs deep learning techniques with real-time robust D-bar methods and examine the influence of prior information on the reconstruction. Approach: A D-bar method is paired with a trained convolutional neural network (CNN) as a post-processing step. Training data is simulated for the network using no knowledge of the boundary shape by using an associated nonphysical Beltrami equation rather than simulating the traditional current and voltage data specific to a given domain. This allows the training data to be boundary shape independent. The method is tested on experimental data from two EIT systems (ACT4 and KIT4) with separate training sets of varying prior information. Main results: Post-processing the D-bar images with a CNN produces significant improvements in image quality measured by structural SIMilarity indices (SSIMs) as well as relative and image errors. Significance: This work demonstrates that more general networks can be trained without being specific about boundary shape, a key challenge in EIT image reconstruction. The work is promising for future studies involving databases of anatomical atlases. (paper)