Galvanic Coupling Transmission in Intrabody Communication: A Finite Element Approach

Galvanic coupling in intrabody communication (IBC) is a technique that couples low-power and low-frequency voltages and currents into the human body, which acts as a transmission medium, and thus constitutes a promising approach in the design of personal health devices. Despite important advances be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2014-03, Vol.61 (3), p.775-783
Main Authors: Callejon, M. Amparo, Reina-Tosina, Javier, Naranjo-Hernandez, David, Roa, Laura M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arm - physiology
Bioimpedance
Biological system modeling
channel length
cole-cole model
Computational modeling
Computer Simulation
Couplings
Current density
electric current density
electric field
Electric Impedance
Electrodes
Electrophysiology - methods
finite element (fem) model
Finite Element Analysis
galvanic coupling
human body tissue
Humans
inter-electrode separation
intrabody communication
Male
Models, Biological
pathloss
Reproducibility of Results
Skin
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Summary:Galvanic coupling in intrabody communication (IBC) is a technique that couples low-power and low-frequency voltages and currents into the human body, which acts as a transmission medium, and thus constitutes a promising approach in the design of personal health devices. Despite important advances being made during recent years, the investigation of relevant galvanic IBC parameters, including the influence of human tissues and different electrode configurations, still requires further research efforts. The objective of this work is to disclose knowledge into IBC galvanic coupling transmission mechanisms by using a realistic 3-D finite element model of the human arm. Unlike other computational models for IBC, we have modeled the differential configuration of the galvanic coupling as a four-port network in order to analyze the electric field distribution and current density through different tissues. This has allowed us to provide an insight into signal transmission paths through the human body, showing them to be considerably dependent on variables such as frequency and inter-electrode distance. In addition, other important variables, for example bioimpedance and pathloss, have also been analyzed. Finally, experimental measurements were also carried out for the sake of validation, demonstrating the reliability of the model to emulate in general forms some of the behaviors observed in practice.
ISSN:0018-9294
1558-2531
DOI:10.1109/TBME.2013.2289946