A Simulation Platform to Study the Human Body Communication Channel

Published

October 7, 2019

Author(s)

Kamran Sayrafian, Katjana Krhac, Gregory Noetscher, Dina Simunic

Abstract

Human Body Communication (HBC) is an attractive low complexity technology with promising applications in wearable biomedical sensors. In this paper, a simple parametric model based on the finite-element method (FEM) using a full human body model is developed to virtually emulate and examine the HBC channel. FEM allows better modeling and quantification of the underlying physical phenomena including the impact of the human body for the desired applications. By adjusting the parameters of the model, a good match with the limited measurement results in the literature is observed. Having a flexible and customizable simulation platform could be very helpful to better understand the communication medium for capacitively coupled electrodes in HBC. This knowledge, in turn, leads to better transceiver design for given applications. The platform presented here can also be extended to study communication channel characteristics when the HBC mechanism is used by an implant device.

Proceedings Title

IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference

Conference Dates

July 23-26, 2019

Conference Location

Berlin

Conference Title

IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC 2019)

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2019.8857883

Local Download

Keywords

Human body communication, Computational human body models, Capacitive coupling

Citation

Sayrafian, K. , Krhac, K. , Noetscher, G. and Simunic, D. (2019), A Simulation Platform to Study the Human Body Communication Channel, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference, Berlin, -1, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2019.8857883 (Accessed October 9, 2025)