In-the-Wild Interference Characterization and Modelling for Electro-Quasistatic-HBC With Miniaturized Wearables

Yang, David; Mehrotra, Parikha; Weigand, Scott; Sen, Shreyas

doi:10.1109/tbme.2021.3082078

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…From the previous literature presented by Yang et al, (2021), there is interference on the human body both at 60 Hz due to the mainline and 45-50 kHz due to CLF Lamps as well as their harmonics. As a result, operating at a higher frequency far and away from these strong interferences enables a better front-end implementation (filtering).…”

Section: Frequency Of Operationmentioning

confidence: 93%

Physically Secure Wearable–Wearable Through-Body Interhuman Body Communication

2022

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Human body communication (HBC) has recently emerged as an alternative method to connect devices on and around the human body utilizing the electrical conductivity properties of the human body. HBC can be utilized to enable new interaction modalities between computing devices by enhancing the natural interaction of touch. It also provides the inherent benefit of security and energy-efficiency compared to a traditional wireless communication, such as Bluetooth, making it an attractive alternative. However, most state-of-the-art HBC demonstrations show communication between a wearable and an Earth ground–connected device, and there have been very few implementations of HBC systems demonstrating communication between two wearable devices. Also, most of the HBC implementations suffer from the problem of signal leakage out of the body which enables communication even without direct contact with the body. In this article, we present BodyWire which uses an electro-quasistatic HBC (EQS-HBC) technique to enable communication between two wearable devices and also confine the signal to a very close proximity to the body. We characterize the human body channel loss under different environment (office desk, laboratory, and outdoors), posture, and body location conditions to ascertain the effect of each of these on the overall channel loss. The measurement results show that the channel loss varies within a range of 15dB across all different posture, environmental conditions, and body location variation, illustrating the dynamic range of the signal available at the input of any receiver. Leakage measurements are also carried out from the devices to show the distance over which the signal is available away from the body to illustrate the security aspect of HBC and show its effect on the channel loss measurements. For the first time, a through-body interhuman channel loss characterization is presented. Finally, a demonstration of secure interhuman information exchange between two battery-operated wearable devices is shown through the BodyWire prototype, which shows the smallest form factor HBC demonstration according to the authors’ best knowledge.

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Section: Frequency Of Operationmentioning

confidence: 93%

Physically Secure Wearable–Wearable Through-Body Interhuman Body Communication

2022

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“…Inter-Body Coupling and Interference (IBCI): Even though BC/MAC topologies can mitigate intra-body MUI, the IBCI can still degrade security and intra-body communication performance, whose in-depth analysis also requires a fullscale characterization. In [13], Yang et al showed negligible IBCI makes covert communication possible in the electroquasi-static region (EQS) below 10 MHz, beyond which information becomes susceptible to eavesdropping. Considering limited bandwidth and relatively higher intra-body path loss in the EQS region, dynamic interference management schemes should be developed to accommodate bandwidth-hungry and insensitive IoB applications over 10-100 MHz.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Internet of Bodies: The Human Body as an Efficient and Secure Wireless Channel

Çelik

Eltawil

2022

IEEE Internet Things M.

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The Internet of Bodies (IoB) is a network of smart objects placed in, on, and around the human body, allowing for intra-and inter-body communications. This position paper aims to provide a glimpse into the opportunities created by implantable, injectable, ingestible, and wearable IoB devices. The paper starts with a thorough discussion of application-specific design goals, technical challenges, and enabling communication standards. We discuss why the highly radiative nature of radio frequency (RF) systems results in inefficient communication due to over-extended coverage, causing interference and becoming susceptible to eavesdropping. Alternatively, body channel communication (BCC) uses the human body as a transmission medium by coupling harmless electrical signals, yielding secure and efficient communication thanks to better channel conditions and lower signal leakage than over-the-air RF systems. Numerical results show that various BCC topologies can respectively reach 8-12 Mbps and 1.5-3 Mbps max-sum and max-min rates with 1 MHz bandwidth and -30 dBm transmission power, which is three orders of magnitude lower than safety limits. Moreover, the BCC is capable of accommodating tens of IoB nodes up to 1 Mbps rates, which is sufficient for most IoB applications. Furthermore, as the cyber and biological worlds meet, security risks and privacy concerns take center stage, leading to a discussion of multi-faceted legal, societal, ethical, and political issues related to technology governance.

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