Localization for capsule endoscopy at UWB frequencies using an experimental multilayer phantom

Abstract

Localization inside the human body using ultrawideband (UWB) wireless technology is gaining importance in several medical applications such as capsule endoscopy. Performance analysis of RF based localization techniques are mainly conducted through simulations using numerical human models or through experimental measurements using homogeneous phantoms. One of the most common implemented RF localization approaches uses the received signal strength (RSS). However, to the best of our knowledge, no experimental measurements employing multilayer phantoms are currently available in literature. This paper investigates the performance of RSS-based technique for two-dimensional (2D) localization by employing a two-layer experimental phantom-based setup. Preliminary results on the estimation of the in-body antenna coordinates show that RSS-based method can achieve a location accuracy on average of 0.5–1 cm within a certain range of distances between in-body and on-body antenna.