Mahesh Parihar

Prachi Mujawar

Shital N Patil

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International Journal of Advance Research In Science And Engineering             http://www.ijarse.com  
IJARSE, Vol. No.3, Issue No.12, December 2014                                                   ISSN-2319-8354(E)   
267 | P a g e  
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INTRA BODY COMMUNICATION 
Prachi Mujawar
1
, Shital N.Patil
2
, Mahesh Parihar
3 
1 
P.G Student   
2
Assistant Professor   
3
Assistant Professor 
Department of Instrumentation Engineering, R.A.I.T, Navi Mumbai, (India) 
 
ABSTRACT 
The main objective of Intrabody communication is the characterization of the human body as a transmission 
medium for electrical signals. It is a short range Wireless communication technique specified by IEEE 802.15.6. 
This technique relies on the conductive property of human tissue to transmit the electrical signals among human 
body. For this purpose, a Red Tacton Chip can be used. Red tacton is a technology that uses human body as a 
medium for transfer of data. It uses body electrical field to transmit digital signals. This method of a data 
transfer is harmless. It is user friendly and fast. 
 
Keywords: - Red Tacton, Arm7, Han.  
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
 
Communication has become main stay for today’s digitally connected world and is being used in wide variety of 
applications like Person to person communication, Person to application communication, Machine to machine 
communication. Each communication requirement has specific needs of speed & data transfer capacity. Today 
we have various types of Communication Networks available at our disposal each with its own advantages & 
disadvantages. There are various short range communication channels apart from Human area network. The 
throughput of these channels is reduced as number of devices increases in an area like crowded space. This 
happens due to packet collision. On other hand infrared communication has lost its popularity due to its highly 
directional nature and need to be in visible range for communication. These limitations can be easily overcome 
through Human Area Network since persons own body is used for communication. It forms an exclusive 
channel for communication. This exclusivity also helps in large throughout for the communication channel.  
 IBC is replacement for Red tacton [1] [7] with overcoming all its drawbacks as it considers human body as a 
resistance and data is passed through the smallest resistive path through the body. It enables the practical Human 
Area Network between body-centered electronic devices and PCs or other network devices embedded in the 
environment via a new generation of user interface based on totally natural human actions such as touching, 
holding, sitting, walking, or stepping on a particular spot [2]. This chip can be embedded into various devices in 
future and thus data can be transferred from one device to other or to computer just by human body. 
 
II. PROPOSED SYSTEM 
 
The block diagram of the proposed system is shown in the figure below. 
 
2.1 System Overview: 
The proposed system will use an Arm7 controller and a USB TTL for serial communication with the PC. Now 
the data is passed from the transmitter to the human body. The human body acts as a transmission line and 
International Journal of Advance Research In Science And Engineering             http://www.ijarse.com  
IJARSE, Vol. No.3, Issue No.12, December 2014                                                   ISSN-2319-8354(E)   
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passes the same data to the receiver. The copper pad is used for conduction of electrical signals from the body to 
the circuitry at both the ends i.e. transmitter as well as receiver. The amplifier is used to amplify the attenuated 
signals that are obtained from the human Body. 
 
Fig1: Block Diagram 
These signals are given to the controller and the controller helps to display the signals on the PC.  Here both 
way communications is possible. Microcontroller monitors the complete system. Power supply unit will supply 
the various voltage requirements of each unit. This will be consists of transformer, rectifier, filter and regulator. 
The rectifier used here will be Bridge Rectifier. It will convert 230VAC into desired 5V/12V DC. 
 
2.2 Techniques Used 
A variety of IBC techniques have been proposed, which can be grouped into three main approaches: galvanic 
coupling, capacitive coupling and waveguide methods [3]. The first two rely on the coupling of low frequency, 
low-level currents and voltages into the human body, respectively, whereas in the last technique, an 
electromagnetic wave propagates through the body, which is commonly associated with the use of higher 
frequencies, thus involving a non negligible radiation component into the air. The most common of all are 
galvanic and capacitive coupling techniques, which are more suitable when lower frequency ranges are 
considered. 
 
2.3 Features 
The Following are the prominent features of the above discussed system. 
1. It is found that body channel has lower attenuation than the air channel which implies the lower 
transmission power required for IBC. 
2. Advantages of IBC over usual wireless RF standards such as Bluetooth and Zigbee are[4]: 
(i) IBC is based on near-field coupling; in such a way that majority of the signal is confined through the 
surface of the body without much energy being radiated into the air compared to Bluetooth and Zigbee. 
(ii) IBC technique has less electromagnetic interference and less susceptible to external interference. 
(iii) Transferring data through Bluetooth involves: 
International Journal of Advance Research In Science And Engineering             http://www.ijarse.com  
IJARSE, Vol. No.3, Issue No.12, December 2014                                                   ISSN-2319-8354(E)   
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 Search for device 
 Connecting the two devices  
 Selecting the data 
 Transfer of data 
This can be time consuming. Specially connecting the phone with Laptops or computers through bluetooth takes 
more time. Again IBC can avoid these problems. 
 
2.4 Technology & Programming Languages 
As microcontrollers are the core of these days digital circuit design in industry, this system uses ARM7 
processor for the centralized operation and digital processing. The technology used here is embedded 
technology which is the future of today’s modern electronics. 
The followings are the various Programming Languages & Technologies that are going to be used in the 
proposed system,  
For Embedded System, 
 Embedded Technology,  
 Embedded C - Keil Compiler, 
 Eagle Software for PCB Designing, 
For PC System, 
 VB.net 2008 Based Application Software, 
 File Handling, 
 Serial Communication Protocol, 
 
III. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT 
 
The study is limited to PC to PC Data Transfer of Business Card and Files using Human Area Network.  It uses 
Serial Communication Protocol. Java Micro Edition 2.0 (J2ME) and Embedded C is used for programming. 
Copper Plates and ARM 7 are used as transmitter and receiver. The system enables file or data transfer through 
ARM 7 and copper plate. 
 
IV. APPLICATIONS 
 
There could be several applications of IBC. Few of them are listed below: 
1. Reduces a huge number of sensor wires around patient in ICU. Patient with number of wireless sensors with 
inbuilt Red Tacton chip on body which gives connectivity to the system. Data signals from the red tacton 
chip comes to the system and thus is analysed [9]. 
2. Easy print 
Printer with in-built Red Tacton Chip and user with Red Tacton chip in-built in the cell phone. Now if the 
user wants to print a file, he will simply select the file from the cell phone and touch the exposed Red 
Tacton chip on the printer. The file gets transferred through the body to the printer and gets printed[6]. 
3. Security Purpose:  
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User wants to open the locked door whose handle is with in-built red tacton chip. The user will simply hold 
his phone with in-built Red Tacton chip in one hand and touch the handle with his other hand. The door 
gets opened [6].  
4. Easy transfer of data: 
Two people want to share the data in their mobile phones with in-built Red tacton chip. The data can be 
sent by selecting the data on one phone and just by touching the body of another the data gets transferred to 
the other phone. 
V. CONCLUSION 
 
Innovative communication technologies for data exchange between on-body and handheld devices are 
emerging. Intra-body communication utilizes the human body as part of the transmission system; the body 
becomes the transmission medium for electrical signals. Among the body transmission principles, the method of 
galvanic coupling is the most promising principle for interconnecting devices. Alternating currents are coupled 
into the human tissue by copper pad and detected at other body locations as a potential difference by a second 
copper pad. In this dissertation implementation of Human Area Network for transmitting data between two 
mobile handsets is demonstrated. The induced data rate is 9600 bps, and the peak current is limited to 10mA. 
This demonstrates the ease of implementation of such technology. This technology can be used for various other 
applications. Using the technique demonstrated we can have secure, Low power consuming and device 
independent communication channel. Some of the applications of this Technology are- 
- Communication between two devices with same user 
- Communication or data transfer between two people when they shake hands 
 
VI. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE RESEARCH 
 
Although we have discussed the topic and research done so far extensively; there is scope for improvement in 
this field. One of the key concern for Human Area Network is the behaviour of such communication when 
Human Body is in motion. As body movement severely impacts the received signal strength [8]. Also, research 
needs to be done on data transfer rate variation due to body movement. This is critical since most of the practical 
implementation of this technology will involve body movement. 
The success of many new technologies has been driven by standardization. Standardization drives adoptability 
and helps by making devices interoperable. It also drives down cost of owning the technology or devices. 
Interoperability, user convenience & low cost are critical success factor for any technology in mass market. 
Standardization of Human Area Network protocol will help in driving its growth. 
Since, Human Area Network involves passing signal through human body. It is critical to have extensive 
medical studies and clinical trials done. This will help in securing support from medical field for this type of 
communication which will be critical for mass adoption. 
 
REFERENCES 
[1] NTT (February 2005). "RedTacton: An innovative HumanArea Networking 
technology".[Online].Available: http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news05e/0502/050218.html  
International Journal of Advance Research In Science And Engineering             http://www.ijarse.com  
IJARSE, Vol. No.3, Issue No.12, December 2014                                                   ISSN-2319-8354(E)   
271 | P a g e  
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[2] M. Du P. U. Mak Y. M. Gao, S. H. Pun and M. I. Vai. Simple electrical model and initial experiments for 
intra-body communications. 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, USA, 2009. 
[3] Nafiseh Seyed Mazloum, “Body-Coupled Communications Experimental characterization, channel 
modeling and physical layer design” REF. NO. EX084/2008. 
[4] Javier Reina-Tosina Laura M. Roa Maria Amparo Callejon, David Naranjo- Hernandez. A comprehensive 
study into intrabody communication measurements. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and 
Measurement, 2012. 
[5] Daniel T.H. Lai Michael Faulkner MirHojjat Seyedi, Behailu Kibret. A survey on intrabody 
communications for body area network applications. IEEE Transactions of Information Technolgy., 2013. 
[6] Srikkanth Goyindaraajan, Saranya Siyasankaran “MR.TACTON (MBEDDED RED TACTON)” 2009 2nd 
International Conference on Power Electronics and Intelligent Transportation System. 
[7] T. G. Zimmerman, “Personal Area Networks: Near-field intra-body communication,” M.S. thesis, MIT 
Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, September 1995. 
[8] Seong-Ook Park Chang-Hee Hyoung, Sung-Weon Kang and Youn-Tae Kim. Transceiver for human body 
communication using frequency selective digital transmission. ETRI Journal, 2012. 
[9] Mario Cifrek Zeljka Lucev, Igor Krois. Application of wireless intra body communication system to muscle 
fatigue monitoring. ETRI Journal, 2010. 
 
 


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