Identifying Electric Shock in the Human Body via $\alpha$ Dispersion

The ability to identify electric shock in the human body is a crucial consideration in the design of touch/leakage protective devices. In this paper, the α-dispersion characteristics of electrical impedance in the human body are investigated based on the Cole-Cole model. An improved electric shock identification method is proposed accordingly. The effects of various factors (e.g., transition resistance and feeder reactance) on the accuracy and reliability are analyzed. Feasibility and effectiveness of the method are verified via numerical simulation. The results indicate that 1) α-dispersion is an effective feature for distinguishing living or nonliving organisms; 2) the proposed method is robust and unaffected by transition resistance; and 3) the computational cost is low to satisfy standard leakage current protective device requirements. This paper provides a solution to the dead-zone problem as well as a set of workable guidelines for protective device design.