Understanding Body Channel Communication : A review: from history to the future applications

Abstract

Increasing requirements of convenient and higher energy efficiency near human body gives more attention to body channel communication (BCC) technology. BCC, utilizing human body as communication medium, can take advantage of both wireline and wireless communication in body area. In this paper, several underlying key considerations of BCC would be introduced from its fundamental basis to target applications. Paper will starts from the comparison with general RF technology and BCC, and introduce historical review of BCC researches. Two analogical perspective to understand BCC and several challenges in its design will be discussed. After that, with following recent transceiver IC design trends, design efforts and their achievements would be covered. After introducing future applications promising for BCC, this paper would be concluded.