Initial investigations into the feasibility of a novel computer-based system for the measurement of the pressure exerted at the interface between a body and its support surface are presented. The proposed system is based around a single sheet of flexible, conductive material, exhibiting known characteristics relating its conductivity to the pressure exerted on it, placed at the body-support interface. There follows a brief introduction to the technique of electrical impedance tomography @IT) that reconstructs the conductivity distribution through the cross-section of a body from eleclrical measurements made at its boundary, intended for use in the proposed system. One such EIT reconstruction algorithm is briefly summarised. The results obtained from a computer implementation of this algorithm on a simple conductivity profile are presented. To conclude, there is a discussion on some of the advantages of the proposed pressure measurement system and on some of the problems encountered in the design of such a system.
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Knight et al. (2005) studied this question.