Wearable network using Optical e-Textile Antenna for NLOS

This paper proposes an Optical e-Textile Antenna (OTA) that overcomes line of sight (LOS) limitation of IrDA-based wearable network. Because the OTA can create a routing path for the optical signal among communication devices, that allows information exchange under the NLOS (non LOS) environment between receiver and transmitter. The proposed OTA is a piece of cloth made of e-Textile, it can be easily adapted to wearable network. The OTA either absorbs the optical signal in free-space at its maximum, close to its front-side, or emits the optical signal evenly. This paper verifies the performance of bi-directional communication of the proposed OTA with the prototype system.