EMR Health Alliance of BC

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.

• 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.