Investigation of Galvanic-Coupled Intrabody Communication Using the Human Body Circuit Model

Intrabody Communication (IBC) is a technique that uses the human body as a transmission medium for electrical signals to connect wearable electronic sensors and devices. Understanding the human body as the transmission medium in IBC paves way for practical implementation of IBC in body sensor networ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics 2014-07, Vol.18 (4), p.1196-1206
Main Authors: Kibret, Behailu, Seyedi, MirHojjat, Lai, Daniel T. H., Faulkner, Micheal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomechanical Phenomena - physiology
Biomedical measurement
Body sensor networks
capacitive coupling
Couplings
Dielectric properties
Electric Impedance
electrode
Electrodes
Female
galvanic coupling
Humans
Impedance
Integrated circuit modeling
intrabody communication (IBC)
Male
measurement setup
modeling
Models, Theoretical
Receivers
simplified equivalent circuit
Skin
Skin Physiological Phenomena
Telemetry
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Summary:Intrabody Communication (IBC) is a technique that uses the human body as a transmission medium for electrical signals to connect wearable electronic sensors and devices. Understanding the human body as the transmission medium in IBC paves way for practical implementation of IBC in body sensor networks. In this study, we propose a model for galvanic coupling-type IBC based on a simplified equivalent circuit representation of the human upper arm. We propose a new way to calculate the electrode-skin contact impedance. Based on the model and human experimental results, we discuss important characteristics of galvanic coupling-type IBC, namely, the effect of tissues, anthropometry of subjects, and electrode configuration on signal propagation. We found that the dielectric properties of the muscle primarily characterize the received signal when receiver electrodes are located close to transmitter electrodes. When receiver and transmitter electrodes are far apart, the skin dielectric property affects the received signal.
ISSN:2168-2194
2168-2208
DOI:10.1109/JBHI.2014.2301165