Measuring upper limb movement to analyze intra-body communication channel attenuation characteristics

Technol Health Care. 2018;26(3):553-558. doi: 10.3233/THC-181208.

Abstract

Background: This experiment was designed to study the respective effects of the closed-state human palm and dynamic arm bending on intra-body communication channel attenuation.

Methods: We selected the right upper arm of a healthy adult male as the experimental object to measure channel attenuation variation in a closed or open palm, and when the arm was bent, so as to analyze channel characteristics.

Conclusions: The experiment showed that, in a quasi-static stable system, the effects of a closed palm on channel attenuation were negligibly minimal. In contrast, the physiological signal of the living body significantly interfered with the channel in the low-frequency mode. In the dynamic arm-bending experiment, we found that the attenuation variation range corresponds to the intersection angle (90∘⩽θ⩽ 180∘) of the upper arm and forearm; these results provide the basis for the establishment of a theoretical model.

Keywords: Human upper limbs; channel attenuation; dynamic pattern; forearm; upper arm.

MeSH terms

  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Hand / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Movement / physiology*
  • Telecommunications*
  • Upper Extremity / physiology*
  • Wearable Electronic Devices*