Comms Gets Personal With Body Networks

Crowdsourcing is taking on a new meaning as researchers at Queen’s University Belfast contemplate using people as wireless base stations.

The team believes that it would be possible to equip everyone with portable sensors to create high-bandwidth networks. It is the antithesis of, and possible answer to, the iPhone antennagate problem.

“In the past few years a significant amount of research has been undertaken into antennas and systems designed to share information across the surface of the human body,” said Dr Simon Cotton from the university’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT).

“Until now, however, little work has been done to address the next major challenge which is one of the last frontiers in wireless communication – how that information can be transferred efficiently to an off-body location,” he explained.

Birth Of The Body To Body Network

The researchers from ECIT’s wireless communications group are investigating how small sensors could be carried in items such as next-generation smartphones. These devices would communicate with each other to create a potentially vast body-to-body network (BBN).

The interaction would providing “anytime, anywhere” mobile network connectivity, Cotton believes, to allow remote medical monitoring for healthcare or, for leisure use, to monitor athletes’ performances or in real-time tactical training in sport.

“The availability of body-to-body networks could bring great social benefits,” he said, “including significant healthcare improvements through the use of bodyworn sensors for the widespread, routine monitoring and treatment of illness away from medical centres. This could greatly reduce the current strain on health budgets and help make the Government’s vision of healthcare at home for the elderly a reality.”

This is more than an academic flight of fancy, a joint five-year research fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Engineering and Physical Research Council has been awarded to the team to examine how the new technology can be harnessed to become part of everyday life.

The work at Queen’s involves collaborating with worldwide experts to develop a range of models for wireless channels and the antennas, wireless devices and networking standards required to make BBNs a reality.

“Success in this field will not only bring major social benefits, it could also bring significant commercial rewards for those involved. Even though the market for wearable wireless sensors is still in its infancy, it is expected to grow to more than 400 million devices annually by 2014,” he predicted.