title: Effects of human limb gestures on galvanic coupling intra-body communication for advanced healthcare system.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intra-Body Communication (IBC), which utilizes the human body as the transmission medium to transmit signal, is a potential communication technique for the physiological data transfer among the sensors of remote healthcare monitoring system, in which the doctors are permitted to remotely access the healthcare data without interrupt to the patients' daily activities.
  
  
  METHODS
  This work investigates the effects of human limb gestures including various joint angles, hand gripping force and loading on galvanic coupling IBC channel. The experiment results show that channel gain is significantly influenced by the joint angle (i.e. gain variation 1.09-11.70 dB, p < 0.014). The extension, as well as the appearance of joint in IBC channel increases the channel attenuation. While the other gestures and muscle fatigue have negligible effect (gain variation <0.77 dB, p > 0.793) on IBC channel. Moreover, the change of joint angle on human limb IBC channel causes significant variation in bit error rate (BER) performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results reveal the dynamic behavior of galvanic coupling IBC channel, and provide suggestions for practical IBC system design.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.|Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Xi Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Sio Hang
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Pun
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Polytechnic, West Shahe Street Xili Lake, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 518000, Guangdong Province, China. zjf@szpt.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian Feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Peng Un
authors.initials: PU
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Polytechnic, West Shahe Street Xili Lake, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 518000, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Bo Dong
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.|Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Mang I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Vai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005121:Extremities / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D018763:Muscle Fatigue; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bit error rate; Galvanic coupling intra-body communication; Human limb gestures; Joint angle; Muscle fatigue