Electromagnetic wave propagation of wireless capsule endoscopy in human body

LIM Eng-Gee, WANG Zhao(王炤), CHEN Jin-hui(陈瑾慧), TILLO Tammam, MAN Ka-lok

(Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China)

Abstract:Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a promising technique which has overcome some limitations of traditional diagnosing tools, such as the comfortlessness of the cables and the inability of examining small intestine section. However, this technique is still far from mature and asks for the feasible improvements. For example, the relatively low transmission data rate and the absence of the real-time localization information of the capsule are all important issues. The studies of them rely on the understanding of the electromagnetic wave propagation in human body. Investigation of performance of WCE communication system was carried out by studying electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation of the wireless capsule endoscopy transmission channel. Starting with a pair of antennas working in a human body mimic environment, the signal transmissions and attenuations were examined. The relationship between the signal attenuation and the capsule (transmitter) position, and direction was also evaluated. These results provide important information for real-time localization of the capsule. Moreover, the pair of antennas and the human body were treated as a transmission channel, on which the binary amplitude shift keying (BASK) modulation scheme was used. The relationship between the modulation scheme, data rate and bit error rate was also determined in the case of BASK. With the obtained studies, it make possible to provide valuable information for further studies on the selection of the modulation scheme and the real-time localization of the capsules.

Key words:wireless capsule; electromagnetic wave propagation; transmission channel