Electromagnetic radiation from ingested sources in the human intestine

There is currently considerable work on the development of wireless sensors that can be used in the small intestine. The radiation characteristics of sources in the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract cannot be readily calculated due to the complexity of the human body and its composite tissues, each with different electrical characteristics. This paper presents radiation characteristics for sources in the GI tract that should allow for the optimum design of more efficient telemetry systems. The characteristics are determined using the finite difference time domain method with a realistic antenna model on an established fully segmented human body model. Maximum radiation was found to occur between 450 and 900 MHz and the gut region was found generally to inhibit vertically polarized electric fields more than horizontally polarized fields