Development of Electromagnetic Inductance Tomography (EMT) Hardware for Determining Human Body Composition

D Goss1, R O Mackin1, E Crescenzo2, H S Tapp3 and A J Peyton1

1 Engineering Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. a.peyton@lancaster.ac.uk

2 IXTREM, 9 Rue Edouard Denis Baldus, 71100, Chalon sur Saone, France

3 Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UA, UK

ABSTRACT

Electromagnetic induction tomography (EMT) has received attention over the last decade for a range of industrial, process and medical applications. An area of particular interest is the application of EMT to detect relatively low conductivity materials in the range < 0.1 S/m to several S/m. These conductivities are characteristic of biological tissues for medical applications and ionised water for industrial process application. Unfortunately, materials with such conductivities produce a very weak, but nevertheless detectable response to the applied magnetic field. The paper describes an EMT system, which is being developed to measure human body composition as this provides a way to assess the nutritional status of an individual. The system has an internal diameter of 750 mm, 8 excitation, 8 detection coils and an operating frequency of approximately 1 MHz.

Keywords Body composition, Mutual inductance, Electromagnetic inductance tomography.