A Time-Frequency Measurement and Evaluation Approach for Body Channel Characteristics in Galvanic Coupling Intrabody Communication

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 21; no. 2; p. 348
• Main Authors: Wei, Ziliang, Wen, Yangrong, Gao, Yueming, Yang, Mingjing, Yang, Jiejie, Pun, Sio Hang, Vai, Mang I, Du, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 06.01.2021; MDPI AG
• Subjects: group search algorithm; intrabody communication; Letter; multitone excitation; parallel measurement; time-frequency evaluation; group search algorithm; multitone excitation; parallel measurement; time-frequency evaluation; intrabody communication
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s21020348

Intrabody communication (IBC) can achieve better power efficiency and higher levels of security than other traditional wireless communication technologies. Currently, the majority of research on the body channel characteristics of galvanic coupling IBC are motionless and have only been evaluated in the frequency domain. Given the long measuring times of traditional methods, the access to dynamic variations and the simultaneous evaluation of the time-frequency domain remains a challenge for dynamic body channels such as the cardiac channel. To address this challenge, we proposed a parallel measurement methodology with a multi-tone strategy and a time-parameter processing approach to obtain a time-frequency evaluation for dynamic body channels. A group search algorithm has been performed to optimize the crest factor of multitone excitation in the time domain. To validate the proposed methods, in vivo experiments, with both dynamic and motionless conditions were measured using the traditional method and the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method is more time efficient ( = 1 ms) with a consistent performance ( > 98%). Most importantly, it is capable of capturing dynamic variations in the body channel and provides a more comprehensive evaluation and richer information for the study of IBC.