Principles and Demonstration of Intrabody Communication With a Sensitive Electrooptic Sensor

We have investigated the basic principles of intrabody communication with a newly developed ridge-type electrooptic (EO) sensor. To intuitively understand the essence of intrabody communication, we introduced a simple model based on the fact that human body can approximately be considered as a conductor wrapped in an insulator. To demonstrate the propriety of the model, we measured the characteristics of communication systems including a human body using the EO sensor. The experimental results well agree with the predictions from the model. The new ridge-type EO sensor is shown to be superior to our previous EO sensor, both in sensitivity and in stability. With the ridge-type EO sensor, we succeeded in 10-Mb/s data transmission through the human body. Furthermore, we discussed the advantages of using the EO sensor for intrabody communication.