Superior Transmission Characteristics of Human Body Communication Using MHz bands over Radio-wave Wireless Communication using GHz bands

• Main Authors: Shinagawa, Haruto, Koshiji, Fukuro
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Body area networks; dipole antenna; Dipole antennas; Electric fields; Electrodes; human body communication; radio-wave communication; Transmitting antennas; wearable electrode; Wireless communication; Wrist
• ISSN: 2693-0854
• DOI: 10.1109/GCCE59613.2023.10315505

In recent years, human body communication (HBC) has been attracted attention as a body area network technology. HBC can effectively distribute electromagnetic fields around the human body using the MHz band. However, the quantitative comparison of the communication characteristics of HBC and radio-wave communication is insufficient, and the superiority of HBC over radio-wave communication has not been demonstrated. In this study, the distribution of electromagnetic fields excited around the human body by wearable HBC electrodes and dipole antennas placed close to the human body is investigated. The electric field excited by a dipole antenna that resonates at 2.4 GHz attenuates to -60 dB in the area shaded by the human body. In contrast, the electric field excited by a 10 MHz HBC electrode maintains a strong distribution and attenuates only to -40 dB even in the area shaded by the human body. The effective electric field distribution of the HBC electrode leads to good transmission characteristics in HBC.