Experimental Studies on Human Body Communication Characteristics Based Upon Capacitive Coupling

Human Body Communication (HBC) is regarded as a burgeoning transmission technology for short-range body sensor network applications. However, there are currently few full-scale on-body measurements describing the principle of body channel propagation characteristics upon capacitive coupling. This paper focuses on the comprehensive experiments on different body parts to investigate body channel characteristics. Using capacitive coupling technique, the body channel characteristics were measured both in frequency domain and in time domain. Based on the whole body measurement results, it was found that the body maintained stable attenuation characteristics: the lowest attenuation is approximate -15dB at 28MHz. Arthrosis such as elbow, knee and wrist affected channel attenuation characteristic by about 2dB. Furthermore, the experiment results illustrate that the fat content in body also affects channel characteristic by 4dB.