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A Review of Antenna for On Body Wearable

Communication and Its Application


Norasnilawati binti Salleh, Suriani Mohd Sam
Advanced Informatics School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Abstract
This paper studies the antenna type used for on body wearable communication and its
application. Wireless communication is used as the medium communication in the
wearable application and an antenna is used as the transceiver to transmit and receive a
signal between devices. Currently, the largest category of wearables application is the
healthcare wearable application. Therefore, the selection of antenna is important because
the body will directly degrade the performance of the antenna. Due to that, a study
will be conducted in order to identify the most suitable antenna to be used for on
body wearable application. The study is aim to improve on body wearable application
design in term of antenna selection. The method used in the study is by comparing the
antenna types that have been used in on body wearable application. The study will be
done using other related works that had been done by other researchers. From the
review that has been done, the textile patch antenna (TPA) is found to be the suitable
antenna that can be implemented into the on body wearable application.

Keywords: on body wearable, antenna

1. Introduction

The wearable communication may seem like a new phenomenon, but the true origins
began in the 1960s and 1970s an. During that time, the wearables device was designed to
be used in gambling for cheating. Nevertheless, the wearables communication was not so
developed until in 1987 when the digital hearing aids are required. Then, after the
development of Internet technology, various new inventions emerge such as wearable
wireless webcam, Bluetooth devices and so on.
The wearable communication has been rapidly growing to enhance the quality and
efficiency of life. In the future, it is expected that everyone will have a wearable
computing device in addition to the phone, tablet and laptop. Wearable computing
device is a small electronic device that can be worn by the user to enable mobile
computing and wireless networks. Besides that, it is also can be worn by a person to
integrate the computer into daily activities or work using the technology.
At first, only a few people who are interested in wearable computing device, but now it is
becoming essential to many people. It has also performed in various applications such as
medical, surveillance, military, gaming, and so on. Broad potential in a variety of
industries makes it important in the latest technology trends. Nowadays, the healthcare
wearable application is the most widely used in wearable communication technology [25].
The healthcare application such as fitness tracker is used to track the employees as part
of health and wellness programs. Due to that, wearables also must be able to operate
safely in the human body.
The wearable communication is challenging compared to ordinary sensor networks and
shortrange communication. In wearable communications, the wearable devices should
have low power consumption and low transmission delays. These wearable devices will
be able to collect, interpret, transmit and exchange data with other wearable devices and
among supporting components. In addition, the successful of wearable communication is
also depends on the networking architectures that support the transmission. Other
important consideration for designing the future wearable communication is the
ubiquitously which is able to connect to the Internet, lightweight, comfortable and so on.
Therefore, the selection of antenna is one of the important elements that need to be
considered for the wearable communication.
In this paper, the method used is explained in Section II. In Section III, the wearable
communication and its application will be discussed and the antenna that had been
implemented for on body wearable communication will be identified and explained.
Based on the review, the comparison will be done and the result will be discussed in
Section IV. Finally, the conclusion is given in Section V.

2. Methodology

In order conduct the study, all the information regarding the wearable communication and
it latest trend has been gathered from the previous works that has been done. The
wireless communication type and antenna type were identified and compared.
In this study, the review is focus onto on body wearable communication and the current
trend of its application is the healthcare application. Therefore, for the antenna type,
the comparison is done based on the criteria needed for on body wearable application.
Finally, the result of the comparison is discussed and concludes. It is expected that, the
result can help to identify the best and suitable antenna type that can be used for the on
body wearable communication which is currently most widely have been developed.

3. Literature Review

This section elaborates the previous work done for wearable communication and it
will focus more on the on body wearable communication. Wearable communication have
potential benefits for any environment where information or communication is desired, and
the use of a hands-free interface is considered beneficial or essential. It also known as an
intelligent system that able to sense, display, transmit information and communicate.

A. Wearable communication
In recent years, the wearable communication became the interest in communication
technology. There are various communication technologies that had been used in
wearables communication such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Wireless LAN
(WiFi), Near Field Communications (NFC), Mobile network (GSM) and Global
Positioning System (GPS). However, nowadays, only three of them are popular and widely
been used. These wearable communication technologies are described in Table 1.

Table 1. Wearable Communication Technologies Review


Bluetooth Wireless Near Field
Low Energy LAN (WiFi) Communications
(BLE) (NFC)
Range < 100 metre 100 metre 20 cm
Power Low Medium Low
consumption
Current < 15 mA ~ 1 mA -
consumption average average
standby
>100 mA
when transmit
Data rate Low (< 1 High (>100 Low (424 Kbps)
Mbps) Mbps for
latest
802.11ac)
>10 Mbps for
802.11g and
802.11n
Frequency 2.4 GHz 2.4 and 5 GHz 13.56 MHz
Application iOS and Android and Two modes of
Devices Android Windows 8 operation, passive
provide API provide API communication and
support for Wifi-Direct active
BLE while Apple communication
AirDrop is not
Wifi-Direct

Nevertheless, in supporting the increasing interest of the wearable communication


especially for body-centric communication applications, the IEEE 802.15 standard has
been established to standardize the applications that intended for on-body, off-body and
in-body communication. The on- body communications describe the link between body
mounted devices communicating wirelessly, while off-body communication defines the
radio link between body worn devices and base units or mobile devices located
in surrounding environment. Lastly, in-body communication is communication between
wireless medical implants and on body nodes [1].
One of the important elements in body-centric communications is antenna selection. The
antenna for wearable communication has to be designed with specific requirement in order
to ensure it is suitable and work well. The wearable antenna also required t be light
weight, low cost, almost maintenance free and no installation.
For on body wearable communication, the selection of antenna is challenging because
the body will directly degrades the performance of the antenna. Besides that, the
wearables also must be able to operate safely in the human body. Therefore, a study will
be conducted in order to review the most suitable antenna that had been used in
wearable system for on body wearable communication and its application.
B. Types of Wearable Antenna and its Application
There are various types of antenna used for on body communication that include textile
patch antenna, antenna coil, ultra-wideband antenna and so on. Based on previous
works that has been done, the antenna type review and applied applications is described
in Table 2.
Table 2. Antenna Type Review
Antenna
Application
Type
Textile Patch Telemedicine communication systems [2], Healthcare
Antenna [9][10], entertainment [12], identification systems
(TPA) [12], sport [9] [12], smart home[12], space[12], and
military [9][12][15], Personal electronics, civil [9],
Medical [9] [11][15][26], Short range communication
between rescue workers [13], Smart clothing [16]
Ultra- Telemedicine communication systems [4], Healthcare
Wideband [3] [7], Motion tracking[8], emergency services [8],
Antenna medical [8]
(UWB)
Radio Security [5], healthcare[5], biomedical [5]
Frequency
Identification
(RFID)
Antenna Coil Healthcare [14]
(AC)
Planar Healthcare [6], entertainment [6], Sports [18]
inverted-F entertainment applications [18]
antenna
(PIFA)
Dual-mode Healthcare [19], Identification system [20], smart
Antennas home [20], entertainment [20]
(DMA)
Electrodes Healthcare [21], sports [21], multimedia [21]
Antenna (EA)
Circularly Healthcare [22], Entertainment [22], Battlefield
Polarized survival [23]
Microstrip
Patch
Antenna
(CPMPA)
Planar Healthcare [24], multimedia [24], Identification [24],
Waveguide military [24], sport [24]
Fed Slot
Antenna
(PWFSA)

Based on the review conducted, it shows that the healthcare application is the most
popular application for on body wearable communication. In addition, textile patch
antenna (TPA) is found to be most widely used for on body wearable communication.
This can be seen in Figure 1 that shows the number of antenna type used for on body
wearable communication based on the review conducted.
Figure 1. Number of Antenna Type used for on body wearable application

4. Result and Discussion


Based on the review, TPA is found to be the most widely been used but in order
to see whether it is suitable to be implemented for the on body wearable
communication, the comparison is done. The antenna type that had been identified
has its own criteria and requirement. Therefore, these criteria will be used to
identify the best antenna type that can be implemented into the on body
wearable communication and its application. The wearable antennas for on body
wearable application should be low influence to human body [2] and low power
consumptions used [7]. In some particular cases, it should be conformable to the
body shape [12]. Other researchers stress out that the antenna should light
weight, flexible and low cost, thus making this antenna well suited for on-body use
[13]. Table 3 describes the antenna type comparison based on these criterions.

Table 3. Antenna Type Comparison


Evaluation
Antenna Type
Criteria
Low TPA[2][13], AC[14], UWB[4], PIFA[6], CPMPA[22]
Influence
Low Power TPA[11], UWB[7]
Low Cost TPA[11]
Light Weight TPA[15], UWB[7][8], PIFA[6], CPMPA[23],
PWFSA[24]
Comfortable TPA[2][10],
Flexible TPA[12]

Based on the comparison analysis that has been done, textile patch antenna (TPA) is
complied with all criterions. Therefore, TPA is believed to be the suitable antenna type
to be applied to on body wearable application. Besides that, TPA is suitable to be applied
in various applications such as telemedicine communication systems, healthcare
entertainment, identification systems, sport wear, smart home, and surveillance in
military.
5. Conclusion
As a conclusion, the TPA is suitable to be applied to on body wearable
communication and its application. This due to it low influence to human body.
Wearables must also be able to operate safely on the human body, a moving and
perspiring environment subject to the elements. The TPA also used low power
consumption can solve the limitations of the wearable devices. Besides that, the
design of TPA is simple and thus it does not require a high cost. The weight of
TPA is very light and makes it comfortable and flexible to conform to a body
part for the user.
The future of wearables can be seen a lot in fitness, tech enthusiasts, healthcare
and military. The market could very well endure, but some of limitations might
stop down the development of wearable application such as communication
security, privacy and so on. Besides that, the Internet of Things (IoT) also
had play important role in increasing the trend of connecting physical objects to
the Internet may drive the growth of wearables. And advances in the technology
may eliminate safety and aesthetics as concerns. But no matter how, the wearables
will still widespread and have a bright future especially for health care and
medical application.

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