An Immersive Visualization System to Study UWB Propagation Channel in Smart Pills Applications

Understanding the radio frequency (RF) propagation channel in a wireless communication link is essential for efficient transceiver design. For ingestible electronics such as smart pills, obtaining this knowledge is a challenging task. Fading robustness, low power consumption and high data rates have made the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology a viable candidate for these applications. In this paper, we present a novel 3D immersive visualization system that can be used to study the UWB propagation channel in a variety of smart pill applications. The immersive system includes a detailed computational human body and gastrointestinal tract models as well as verified models of the antennas. As an example, using this system, a methodology is presented to obtain a more accurate statistical pathloss model representing the UWB channel for capsule endoscopy. The methodology involves an interactive procedure to identify proper positions of the capsule antenna inside the small intestine using the immersive platform. The fading component in the resulting pathloss model effectively captures the impact of the antenna orientation as well as various body tissues. The channel model has been contributed to the IEEE 802.15 Task Group 6ma that is currently working on the revision of the Standard IEEE 802.15.62012 on wireless Body Area Networks.