Evaluation and Verification of Channel Transmission Characteristics of Human Body for Optimizing Data Transmission Rate in Electrostatic-Coupling Intra Body Communication System: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

BackgroundIntra-body communication is a new wireless scheme for transmitting signals through the human body. Understanding the transmission characteristics of the human body is therefore becoming increasingly important. Electrostatic-coupling intra-body communication system in a ground-free situation that integrate electronic products that are discretely located on individuals, such as mobile phones, PDAs, wearable computers, and biomedical sensors, are of particular interest.Materials and MethodsThe human body is modeled as a simplified Resistor-Capacitor network. A virtual ground between the transmitter and receiver in the system is represented by a resister-capacitor network. Value of its resistance and capacitance are determined from a system perspective. The system is characterized by using a mathematical unit step function in digital baseband transmission scheme with and without Manchester code. As a result, the signal-to-noise and to-intersymbol-interference ratios are improved by manipulating the load resistor. The data transmission rate of the system is optimized. A battery-powered transmitter and receiver are developed to validate the proposal.ResultsA ground-free system fade signal energy especially for a low-frequency signal limited system transmission rate. The system transmission rate is maximized by simply manipulating the load resistor. Experimental results demonstrate that for a load resistance of 10k−50k Ω, the high-pass 3 dB frequency of the band-pass channel is 400kHz−2MHz in the worst-case scenario. The system allows a Manchester-coded baseband signal to be transmitted at speeds of up to 20M bit per second with signal-to-noise and signal-to-intersymbol-interference ratio of more than 10 dB.ConclusionThe human body can function as a high speed transmission medium with a data transmission rate of 20Mbps in an electrostatic-coupling intra-body communication system. Therefore, a wideband signal can be transmitted directly through the human body with a good signal-to-noise quality of 10 dB if the high-pass 3 dB frequency is suitably selected.

A Periodic Transmission Line Model for Body Channel Communication

“…This contribution should be considered due to the ambiguous electrode-antenna behavior observed elsewhere in the literature [3]. The value of the parasitic impedance for the extrinsic return path, C TX , in pF, is a largely variable quantity (from tenths pF to tens of pF), according to the literature, and, furthermore, it has been often considered as a function of the working frequency and of the size of the TX or RX electrodes [20], [31]. However, its explicit dependence from the environment and the working configurations is still an open issue.…”

“…Furthermore, BCC allows the connection of wearable systems with the external objects through simple physical contact [3], [20]. Moreover, the communication may involve even more than one person.…”

New Contact Sensorization Smart System for IoT e-Health Applications Based on IBC IEEE 802.15.6 Communications

“…Privacy issues [ 30 , 31 ], ISM band saturation, power loss, and interferences with medical equipment and patient health [ 32 , 33 , 34 ] are some of the reasons that recommend the use of the so-called Intra Body Communications (IBC) [ 35 ]. Previous proposals have studied the propagation of RF signals [ 36 , 37 ], capacitive [ 38 , 39 , 40 ] and galvanic coupling [ 41 , 42 ] and even ultrasonic [ 43 , 44 ] emissions through the human tissues. This way, Intra-body Communication (IBC) is becoming the most appropriate alternative for devices that require low power consumption, information security, frequent reuse, and resistance to interference.…”