Analysis of radiopropagation of wireless transceivers in surfboards

The evolution of wireless technology and detection sensors allow the development of economical and wearable systems that can offer usable information like weather status or changes in person movements and their use can be interesting in some sports where the human body movements are crucial for the result of the competition. In surfing an accelerometer could provide information about all the movements of a contestant and transmit all the information using a wireless link, although the electromagnetic challenge of being surrounded by water must be considered. In this work this complexity is taken in account in order to determine the possible implementation of this kind of systems in this sport. Using a 3D ray launching method a surfboard including the presence of human body has been simulated for two scenarios, with water and with concrete under the board, in which the material properties of all materials have been considered. An antenna has been placed in the back side of the table emitting with an operation frequency of 2.4GHz and the results for the two scenarios are depicted in the Figure 1 using horizontal power level planes at 0.3m and 0.9m. As expected, lower power levels are received when the board is over water caused by the higher absorption of this material, but in two cases they are compatibles with the data transmission. In conclusion, a sensor system for taking and saving information about person movements or his vital signs that allows the downloading of the data once the activity is finished could be implemented in this kind of sports.