Forward Problem of Near-infrared Optical Tomography Solved by Finite Element Method

The solution to forward problem of near-infrared optical tomography (NIR OT) is a vital question. Light propagation in the tissue can be described by the steady-state (time independent) diffusion equation, boundary condition is the Dirichlet condition. The simulation tool based on Finite Element Method (FEM) has been developed to solve the equation quickly and exactly. Some models and the distribution of light intensity around the boundary of models have been given. The BP neural network was used to find the relationship between the data measured by instrument and predicted by FEM. The inverse problem of OT can be solved as optimization problem, so the properties of the fitness function has also been studied.