An Optical Tomography System Using a Digital Signal Processor

The use of a personal computer together with a Data Acquisition System (DAQ) as the processing tool in optical tomography systems has been the norm ever since the beginning of process tomography. However, advancements in silicon fabrication technology allow nowadays the fabrication of powerful Digital Signal Processors (DSP) at a reasonable cost. This allows this technology to be used in an optical tomography system since data acquisition and processing can be performed within the DSP. Thus, the dependency on a personal computer and a DAQ to sample and process the external signals can be reduced or even eliminated. The DSP system was customized to control the data acquisition process of 16x16 optical sensor array, arranged in parallel beam projection.