Transmission Analysis in Human Body Communication for Head-Mounted Wearable Devices

As society ages, wireless body area networks (WBANs) are expected to increasingly improve the quality of life of the elderly and disabled. One promising WBAN technology is human body communication (HBC), which utilizes part of the human body as a transmission medium. Communication between head-mounted wearable devices, such as hearing aids, is a potential HBC application. To clarify the HBC transmission mechanism between head-mounted wearable devices, this study analyzes the input impedance characteristics of the transceiver electrodes, transmission characteristics, and electric field distributions around and through a detailed head model. The investigation was performed via an electromagnetic field simulation. The signal frequency had less effect on the transmission characteristics and electric field distributions at 10, 20, and 30 MHz. However, the transmission mechanism between the head-mounted wearable devices was influenced by the number of electrodes in the transceiver. Moreover, the transmission characteristics between two-electrode transceivers were improved by impedance matching. Finally, the availability of the proposed system was evaluated from power consumption and human safety perspectives.

[1]  Yong-Xin Guo,et al.  Investigation and Modeling of Capacitive Human Body Communication , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

[2]  J.H. Hwang,et al.  Effects of ground electrode on signal transmission of human body communication using human body as transmission medium , 2006, 2006 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[3]  Thiemo Voigt,et al.  Data Packet Transmission Through Fat Tissue for Wireless IntraBody Networks , 2017, IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology.

[4]  Oliver Chiu-sing Choy,et al.  Cascaded Network Body Channel Model for Intrabody Communication , 2016, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

[5]  Harinath Garudadri,et al.  Channel Modeling of Miniaturized Battery-Powered Capacitive Human Body Communication Systems , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[6]  R. Chandra,et al.  Miniaturized antennas for link between binaural hearing aids , 2010, 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology.

[7]  Youn Tae Kim,et al.  Touch-Based Dual-Band System Combined Human Body Communication and Wireless LAN for Wearable Devices , 2019, Electronics.

[8]  K. Foster,et al.  Microwave dielectric properties of tissue. Some comments on the rotational mobility of tissue water. , 1977, Biophysical journal.

[9]  Daniel T. H. Lai,et al.  Galvanically Coupled Intrabody Communications for Medical Implants: A Unified Analytic Model , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[10]  Marco Crepaldi,et al.  Live Wire - A Low-Complexity Body Channel Communication System for Landmark Identification , 2020 .

[11]  Abbas Jamalipour,et al.  Wireless Body Area Networks: A Survey , 2014, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.

[12]  R. W. Lau,et al.  The dielectric properties of biological tissues: II. Measurements in the frequency range 10 Hz to 20 GHz. , 1996, Physics in medicine and biology.

[13]  German A. Alvarez-Botero,et al.  Characterization and Modeling of the Capacitive HBC Channel , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[14]  Yufei Zhao,et al.  The Modeling and Simulation of the Galvanic Coupling Intra-Body Communication via Handshake Channel , 2017, Sensors.

[15]  Nozomi Haga,et al.  Equivalent Circuit of Intrabody Communication Channels Inducing Conduction Currents Inside the Human Body , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[16]  W. Noble,et al.  Optimizing Sound Localization with Hearing Aids , 1998, Trends in amplification.

[17]  Fukuro Koshiji,et al.  Homogenous arm model in impedance analysis of electrodes for Human Body Communication , 2013, 2013 IEEE 2nd Global Conference on Consumer Electronics (GCCE).

[18]  Thomas G. Zimmerman,et al.  : Near-field , 2022 .

[19]  Daniel T. H. Lai,et al.  A Galvanic Intrabody Method for Assessing Fluid Flow in Unilateral Lymphoedema , 2017 .

[20]  K. Fujii,et al.  Electric Field Distributions of Wearable Devices Using the Human Body as a Transmission Channel , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[21]  Anders J. Johansson,et al.  A Link Loss Model for the On-Body Propagation Channel for Binaural Hearing Aids , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[22]  Hanjun Jiang,et al.  A Smart Binaural Hearing Aid Architecture Based on a Mobile Computing Platform , 2019 .

[23]  Fukuro Koshiji,et al.  Input impedance analysis of a human body communication transmitter using a realistic human model and a simplified layered model , 2013 .

[24]  Sergei Kochkin,et al.  MarkeTrak VIII: Consumer satisfaction with hearing aids is slowly increasing , 2010 .

[25]  D. Muramatsu,et al.  Clarification of transmission mechanism in Human body communication between head-mounted wearable devices with detailed model , 2014, 2014 International Conference on Electronics Packaging (ICEP).

[26]  Márcio Holsbach Costa,et al.  Perceptually Relevant Preservation of Interaural Time Differences in Binaural Hearing Aids , 2019, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing.

[27]  Hoi-Jun Yoo,et al.  The Signal Transmission Mechanism on the Surface of Human Body for Body Channel Communication , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[28]  Javier Reina-Tosina,et al.  Study of Attenuation and Dispersion Through the Skin in Intrabody Communications Systems , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

[29]  Lei Wang,et al.  An Approach to Biometric Verification Based on Human Body Communication in Wearable Devices , 2017, Sensors.

[30]  Marco Crepaldi,et al.  A Periodic Transmission Line Model for Body Channel Communication , 2020, IEEE Access.

[31]  Yoshifumi Nishida,et al.  Electromagnetic Field Analysis of Signal Transmission Path and Electrode Contact Conditions in Human Body Communication , 2018, Applied Sciences.

[32]  J.H. Hwang,et al.  Effects of transmitter’s location on the signal loss of the human body communication , 2008, 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[33]  Masaharu Takahashi,et al.  Study on the Transmission Mechanism for Wearable Device Using the Human Body as a Transmission Channel , 2005, IEICE Trans. Commun..

[34]  Ken Sasaki,et al.  HW-01 INTRA-BODY DIGITAL DATA TRANSMISSION FOR THE PERSONAL AREA NETWORK , 2003 .

[35]  George Jie Yuan,et al.  Equation Environment Coupling and Interference on the Electric-Field Intrabody Communication Channel , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[36]  Zeljka Lucev,et al.  Past Results, Present Trends, and Future Challenges in Intrabody Communication , 2018, Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput..

[37]  JeongGil Ko,et al.  IB-MAC: Transmission Latency-Aware MAC for Electro-Magnetic Intra-Body Communications , 2019, Sensors.

[38]  T. Nagaoka,et al.  Development of realistic high-resolution whole-body voxel models of Japanese adult males and females of average height and weight, and application of models to radio-frequency electromagnetic-field dosimetry. , 2004, Physics in medicine and biology.

[39]  Yahya Rahmat-Samii,et al.  EM interaction of handset antennas and a human in personal communications , 1995, Proc. IEEE.

[40]  Jin-Ho Cho,et al.  Piezoelectric Actuator with Frequency Characteristics for a Middle-Ear Implant , 2018, Sensors.

[41]  O. Fujiwara,et al.  Correlation between maximum temperature increase and peak SAR with different average schemes and masses , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

[42]  Fukuro Koshiji,et al.  Equivalent Circuit Model Viewed From Receiver Side in Human Body Communication , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

[43]  Yang Li,et al.  Investigation of Creeping Wave Propagation Around the Human Head at ISM Frequencies , 2017, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[44]  Peng Un Mak,et al.  Quasi-Static Modeling of Human Limb for Intra-Body Communications With Experiments , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

[45]  Simon L. Cotton,et al.  An Antennas and Propagation Approach to Improving Physical Layer Performance in Wireless Body Area Networks , 2009, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[46]  Alex Borges Vieira,et al.  A Low-Cost Electronic System for Human-Body Communication , 2020, Electronics.

[47]  Bo Zhao,et al.  An Investigation on Ground Electrodes of Capacitive Coupling Human Body Communication , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

[48]  T.S.P. See,et al.  Effects of human body on performance of wearable PIFAs and RF transmission , 2005, 2005 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.