A Feasibility Study on the Adoption of Human Body Communication for Medical Service

A feasibility study on the adoption of human body communication (HBC) for medical service is presented. The electrical specifications of HBC for medical service were reviewed. The ratio of the leakage current into the heart to the output current of a capsule-type transmitter and the propagation loss in the channel were simulated using an anatomical body model. The in-body to on-body channel loss for HBC was provided by electromagnetic simulation from the capsule-type transmitter in the stomach to receiving electrodes on the abdominal region. An analog front end with a sensitivity of 37 μVpp was developed, which showed an improvement of 21 dB against the best report. The 14 mm × 26 mm capsule-type transmitter was implemented, and preclinical experiment was conducted using a live pig. The proposed system successfully transferred data from the capsule-type transmitter in a stomach to the electrodes on the butt and the low jaw of the pig at a high rate of 2 Mb/s at a distance of 90 cm without packet error.