In vivo wireless channel modeling

Abstract

Technological advances in biomedical engineering have significantly improved the quality of life and increased the life expectancy of many people. In recent years, there has been increased interest inwireless body area networks(WBANs)research with the goal of satisfying the demand for innovative biomedical technologies and improved healthcare quality [1, 2]. One component ofsuch advanced technologiesisrepresented bythe devicessuch aswirelessin vivo sensors and actuators, e.g., pacemakers, internal drug delivery devices, nerve stimulators, wireless capsule endoscopes (WCEs), etc. In vivo wireless medical devices and their associated technologies represent the next stage of this evolution and offer a cost efficient and scalable solution along with the integration of wearable devices. In vivo-WBAN devices (Figure 7.1) are capable of providing continuous health monitoring and reducing the invasiveness of surgeries. Furthermore, patient information can be collected over a larger period of time, and physicians are able to perform more reliable analysis by exploiting big data [3] rather than relying on the data recorded in short hospital visits.