Keynote Talk

Antennas and Propagation for Body-Centric Wireless Communications in Healthcare

Abstract

Body-centric wireless communications refer to human-self and human-to-human networking with the use of wearable and implantable wireless sensors. It is a subject area combining wireless body-area networks (WBANs), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). With the increasing sophistication of wearable and implantable medical devices and their integration with wireless sensors, an ever-expanding range of therapeutic and diagnostic applications is being pursued by research and commercial organizations. However, the human body is an uninviting and often hostile environment for a wireless signal. In general, antennas suffer from reduced efficiency due to electromagnetic absorption in human tissues, radiation pattern fragmentation and variations in impedance at the feed.

The objective of this talk is to provide a comprehensive review of recent developments in body-centric wireless communications for monitoring behaviour related to human physiological response. It presents background information on the use of wireless technology and sensors to develop a wireless physiological measurement system. Recent progress in non-invasive detection of vital signs for chronic disease management is discussed.