Effect of Electromagnetic Interference on Human Body Communication

In human body communication (HBC), the human body is used as a medium for transmitting data between devices as a replacement for wired and wireless technologies. The human body functions as an antenna in the low-frequency band used by HBC. Owing to this antenna function, electromagnetic waves radiating from electronic devices or wireless services cause electromagnetic interference (EMI) in HBC devices. This paper addresses such EMI in HBC devices. The interference signal caused by EMI was measured while the human subject, who was using an HBC device, was exposed to a general EMI environment at multiple sites. Using the interference model obtained from the measured interference signals, bit-error-rate degradation caused by the interference signal was simulated. The interference model presented in this paper can be effectively used to achieve reliable data communication in various HBC devices.