CPFI-EIT: A CNN-PINN Framework for Full-Inverse Electrical Impedance Tomography on Non-Smooth Conductivity Distributions

Abstract: This paper introduces a hybrid learning framework that combines convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to address the challenging problem of full-inverse electrical impedance tomography (EIT). EIT is a noninvasive imaging technique that reconstructs the spatial distribution of internal conductivity based on boundary voltage measurements from injected currents. This method has applications across medical imaging, multiphase flow detection, and tactile sensing. However, solving EIT involves a nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) derived from Maxwell's equations, posing significant computational challenges as an ill-posed inverse problem. Existing PINN approaches primarily address semi-inverse EIT, assuming full access to internal potential data, which limits practical applications in realistic, full-inverse scenarios. Our framework employs a forward CNN-based supervised network to map differential boundary voltage measurements to a discrete potential distribution under fixed Neumann boundary conditions, while an inverse PINN-based unsupervised network enforces PDE constraints for conductivity reconstruction. Instead of traditional automatic differentiation, we introduce discrete numerical differentiation to bridge the forward and inverse networks, effectively decoupling them, enhancing modularity, and reducing computational demands. We validate our framework under realistic conditions, using a 16-electrode setup and rigorous testing on complex conductivity distributions with sharp boundaries, without Gaussian smoothing. This approach demonstrates robust flexibility and improved applicability in full-inverse EIT, establishing a practical solution for real-world imaging challenges.