Abstract
This paper proposes a novel miniaturized wearable antenna (mosaic antenna) for cross-body communication featuring a superior performance compared to five commonly utilized wearable antenna topologies. The proposed mosaic antenna optimally excites the surface waves to enable cross-body communication yet still with a low profile and a miniaturized size. As a proof-of-concept of the unique capabilities of this antenna, an inkjet-printed flexible wearable prototype on Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, also known as Teflon) has been fabricated in a highly customizable, scalable and low-cost process and has been used as an enabler for human activities recognition coupled with machine learning techniques powered by Google TensorFlow. By utilizing proof-of-concept on-body networks consisting of mosaic antennas, human activity can be detected with an accuracy 91.9% for RF signal-based recognition techniques, despite the variability among different users and environments.
Highlights
As the wearable electronics industry is growing dramatically every year, novel mind-blowing wearable products have been seen in the market over the last decade
This work aims to design a minimized antenna for on-body communications that can fit in compact wearable devices and can drastically outperform commonly used planar antenna topologies, namely monopole antenna, patch antenna, dipole antenna, Inverted-F antenna (IFA), and slot antenna that are shown in Fig. 1(a)-(e), which all operate at 2.4 GHz spectrum for bluetooth (BT) and bluetooth low energy (BLE), the most commonly used wireless protocol for body area networks (BAN)
This paper provides an overview of wearable antennas for on-body networks, from designing an antenna to overcome body effects, flexible antenna fabrication, to an on-body networks application, human activity recognition using received signal strength indicator/index (RSSI) and machine learning
Summary
As the wearable electronics industry is growing dramatically every year, novel mind-blowing wearable products have been seen in the market over the last decade. Academic research effort in wearable electronics has been growing tremendously every year [1]. The most comprehensive problem is the shadowing effect: the body is commonly in the line of sight (LOS) between transmitters and receivers, preventing a high-quality LOS communication. In this case, the utilization of surface waves is one of the best solutions, which is independent of the environment, and very
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
