Wireless body area network using magnetically-coupled wearable coils

We have proposed and investigated body area networks using magnetic coupling between coils worn on an arm, and confirmed that the transmission characteristics were improved more than 20 dB compared with those of the conventional human body communication using electrodes in contact with the body. However, the arm will be bent with various angles in daily life. In this paper, transmission characteristics between the transmitting and receiving coils worn on the bent arm and magnetic field distributions around the coils and arm were analyzed and investigated. As a result, the transmission characteristics were stable and hardly influenced against bending the human arm with various angles.