Feasibility study for optical BAN

Abstract

To examine the practical potential of an optical body area network (BAN) technique, a feasibility study was conducted of optical data transmission through a human hand using diffusely scattered light. The data transmission of 170 mm distance in a human hand was accomplished to show the possibility of the data transmission from the wrist to the fingertips in an adult hand. The frequency bandwidth for data transmission was restricted by the effect of strong scattering inside body tissues. In experiments using a human hand, the bandwidth was measured to be 2.80 GHz. The feasibility of BAN using diffusely scattered light in the body was verified through these analyses.