Experimental investigation of the effect of clothes on the propagation of millimeter waves over the human trunk

Body centric wireless communications are now a well-established field of research. Most of the available work is focused on frequencies up to 12GHz, and covers various aspects concerning the communication, from signal propagation to antenna design. Recently, the interest over V and W bands has been growing, due to the presence of unlicensed portions of the spectrum, and the ever increasing availability of compact devices working at millimeter wave frequencies. The knowledge about the effects of the proximity of the human body on the communication channel at such frequencies is still extremely limited. This paper presents an investigation of the electromagnetic field propagation over the human trunk at 94GHz, also taking into account different clothes worn by the subject.