Method and apparatus for determining electromagnetic field characteristics within a volume

Abstract

Electromagnetic field mapping is accelerated by acquiring data from the surface bounding a volume of interest and solving the boundary value problem (BVP) using Green's function in a preferred embodiment. Instead of measuring electromagnetic field components on a step-by-step basis at each point within a region of interest, only a component of the field, preferably the normal component, is measured on the surface bounding the volume. The use of surface data acquisition, a solution to the BVP using Green's function, and optional error correction based on the treatment of errors as virtual sources, combine to produce a process of defining of the electromagnetic field within the volume that reduces to a few minutes what presently takes days or longer, and sometimes impossible. Data acquisition may be carried out either by moving sensors along the surface or, preferably, by fixing the position of several single axis or one-directional sensors on the surface bounding the volume without the necessity of moving parts. All geometry-dependent parameters, as determined by the shape and size of the volume of interest, may be pre-computed or computed independently on measurements. In addition to electromagnetic tracking systems, including LOS tracking, the methodology is directly applicable to electromagnetic motion capture systems, tomographic systems and devices (including optical, X-ray, magnetic), non-destructive electromagnetic measurements, and remote sensing.