Comparing D-bar and common regularization-based methods for electrical impedance tomography

OBJECTIVE: To compare D-bar difference reconstruction with regularized linear reconstruction in electrical impedance tomography. APPROACH: A standard regularized linear approach using a Laplacian penalty and the GREIT method for comparison to the D-bar difference images. Simulated data was generated using a circular phantom with small objects, as well as a ‘Pac-Man’ shaped conductivity target. An L-curve method was used for parameter selection in both D-bar and the regularized methods. MAIN RESULTS: We found that the D-bar method had a more position independent point spread function, was less sensitive to errors in electrode position and behaved differently with respect to additive noise than the regularized methods. SIGNIFICANCE: The results allow a novel pathway between traditional and D-bar algorithm comparison.