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  • Review Article
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Human body communication transceivers

Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 2, pages 374–389 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Although advances in medical technology have facilitated access to treatments and preventative protocols, health care remains constrained by frequent, multiple doctor visits, disrupting daily routines and burdening medical infrastructure. The Internet of Bodies offers a transformative solution by integrating wearable, implantable, ingestible and injectable devices in, on and around the body and thus enabling seamless connectivity in biomedical applications. Since the term was first introduced in the mid-1990s, the Internet of Bodies has made notable progress owing to advances in miniaturized electronics, flexible substrates and low-power design. A critical component of this development is the introduction of human body communication (HBC), which uses the human body as a transmission medium. By replacing the radio front-end with simple direct skin interfaces, sensing and communication modules become smaller, lighter, more energy-efficient and accessible. In this Review, we focus on the role of HBC transceivers for next-generation health-care and body-area networks. We discuss the fundamental principles of HBC, including signal propagation, channel modelling and performance trade-offs. Key design challenges such as dynamic channel variations, skin–electrode interfaces, interference, safety regulations and energy efficiency are analysed. Additionally, we explore the circuit design techniques that affect HBC performance and adaptability. Advancements in miniaturized electronics, low-power design and deep-learning-driven transceiver architectures are needed to further unlock the potential of HBC systems, paving the way for their widespread adoption in personalized health-care and secure body-centric communication systems.

Key points

  • Within the context of the Internet of Bodies (IoB), human body communication (HBC) is a promising communication technique that uses the human body as the medium for transmitting signals.

  • HBC has advantages over radiofrequency-based systems, including up to 100× lower power requirements, reduced area, minimal signal leakage and enhanced security (32× smaller leakage detection range for capacitive coupling-HBC in electroquasistatic range compared with radiofrequency), making it ideal for IoB applications.

  • HBC transceiver design should include accurate channel modelling, accounting for channel variability, robust skin–electrode interfaces, interference, operational frequency effects, safety and reliability.

  • Research in energy harvesting, ultra-thin electronics, improved artificial intelligence models and deep-learning techniques is needed to enhance HBC for IoB applications.

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Fig. 1: Internet of Bodies domains.
Fig. 2: Human body communication coupling methods.
Fig. 3: Circuit models of capacitive coupling-human body communication transceivers.
Fig. 4: Performance of human body communication transceivers.

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Acknowledgements

The research reported in this publication was partially supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)–KAUST Center of Excellence for Smart Health (KCSH) under award number 5932 and from NEOM under award number 4819.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qi Huang, Mohammed E. Fouda, Ahmed M. Eltawil.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Qi Huang & Shreyas Sen

  2. Electrical and Computer Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Abdelhay Ali, Abdulkadir Celik, Gianluca Setti, Khaled N. Salama & Ahmed M. Eltawil

  3. Neom, Saudi Arabia

    Jaafar Elmirghani & Noha Al-Harthi

  4. Compumacy for Artificial Intelligence Solutions, Cairo, Egypt

    Mohammed E. Fouda

Authors
  1. Qi Huang
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  2. Abdelhay Ali
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  3. Abdulkadir Celik
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  4. Gianluca Setti
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  5. Jaafar Elmirghani
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  6. Noha Al-Harthi
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  7. Khaled N. Salama
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  8. Shreyas Sen
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  9. Mohammed E. Fouda
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  10. Ahmed M. Eltawil
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Contributions

Q.H., A.A., A.C., M.E.F. and A.M.E researched data for the article. All the authors substantially contributed to discussion of content. Q.H., A.A., A.C., M.E.F. and A.M.E wrote the manuscript. Q.H., M.E.F. and A.M.E. revised the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ahmed M. Eltawil.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering thanks John Ho, Sofie Lenders, Hendrick Rogier and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Related links

ANT: https://www.dynastream.com/components/c7-modules

Bluetooth: https://www.bluetooth.com/core-specification-6-feature-overview/

EFR32ZG23: https://www.silabs.com/wireless/z-wave/800-series-modem-soc

nRF5340: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF5340

NTAG: https://www.nxp.com/products/rfid-nfc/nfc-hf/ntag-for-tags-and-labels/ntag-424-dna-424-dna-tagtamper-advanced-security-and-privacy-for-trusted-iot-applications:NTAG424DNA

Powercast: https://www.powercastco.com/

Glossary

Amplitude shift keying

A modulation scheme in which the amplitude of the carrier wave varies based on the digital data.

Binary phase shift keying

(BPSK). A digital modulation scheme that represents binary data using two distinct phase states, 0° for binary ‘0’ and 180° for binary ‘1’ making it robust against noise but with limited spectral efficiency.

Duty cycling

The process of turning a device on and off at regular intervals to save energy or manage power consumption.

Fast Fourier transform/inverse fast Fourier transform

Fast Fourier transform converts signals from time to frequency domain, and inverse fast Fourier transform does the opposite, as critical signal processing algorithms.

Frequency shift keying

(FSK). A modulation scheme in which the frequency of the carrier wave varies based on the digital data.

Injection locking

A phenomenon in which the frequency and phase of an oscillator are stabilized by an external signal with a similar frequency.

Ionization

The process by which an atom or molecule gains or loses electrons.

Manchester code

A binary encoding scheme in which each bit is represented by a transition: a low-to-high transition for a ‘1’ and a high-to-low transition for a ‘0’, ensuring synchronization and eliminating the need for a separate clock signal.

Non-return to zero

A binary encoding scheme in which signal levels remain constant during a bit interval, with one level representing a binary ‘1’ and another level representing a binary ‘0’ without returning to a neutral or zero state between bits.

On–off keying

A simple form of amplitude shift keying used in digital modulation, in which the presence or absence of a signal represents binary data. A high signal (carrier present) represents a binary ‘1’. A low signal (carrier absent or reduced to a minimum) represents a binary ‘0’.

Phase-locked loop

(PLL). An electronic circuit that synchronizes the phase and frequency of an output signal with a reference signal.

P-OFDM with BPSK

(Pseudo-orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (P-OFDM) with binary phase shift keying (BPSK)). A multicarrier modulation technique that relaxes strict orthogonality among subcarriers to improve spectral efficiency and robustness while using BPSK for simple, resilient binary symbol mapping.

Quadrature phase shift keying

A digital modulation scheme that encodes two bits per symbol by using four distinct phase states (0°, 90°, 180° and 270°), effectively doubling the data rate compared with BPSK while maintaining robustness against noise.

Resource sharing

The strategy to allow multiple circuit blocks to access and use the same resources, such as clock sharing.

Specific absorption rate

(SAR). The SAR measures the rate at which the body absorbs energy from an electromagnetic field.

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Huang, Q., Ali, A., Celik, A. et al. Human body communication transceivers. Nat Rev Electr Eng 2, 374–389 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00160-y

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