Figure 1
From: Enabling Covert Body Area Network using Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication
EQS-HBC vs. WBAN: An Overview of the Data Privacy Space. Persons wearing transmitter device (pacemaker) and an on-body hub communicating using EQS-HBC (left) and WBAN (right) respectively. For the intra-body EQS-HBC, signals are coupled to the surface of the human body using an interfacing copper electrode which protrudes from beneath the transmitter consisting of communication module, processing module, memory, and power source. The transmitted signal flows through the low resistance layers of the body below the skin and is picked up by the receiver electrode. On the other hand, WBAN uses an antenna to radiate the signals wirelessly up to a larger distance that can be picked up by a nearby eavesdropper. The privacy space in case of EQS-HBC (<0.15 m) is significantly improved by an order of >30×, compared to WBAN (~5 m). The human figures were created using the open-source software ‘MakeHuman’42. The detailed anatomy of the human skin layer structure can be found in43.
