1. An adaptive method to automatically select/deselect coils in an MRI device for improved image reconstruction comprising the steps of: initializing a fast prescan and acquiring k-space data that includes at least one k-space data line for each of a plurality of MR coils; adaptively determining an index gauge for at least one k-space data line acquired for each coil; comparing the index gauges; and automatically selecting/deselecting, based on the index gauge comparison, a number of MR coils to activate for image data acquisition.