Comparison of 3D Scanned Human Models for Off-Body Communications using Motion Capture

Body area networks are complex to analyze as there are several channel mechanisms occurring simultaneously, i.e. environmental multipath together with body motion and close coupling between worn antennas and human tissue. Electromagnetic (EM) simulation is an important tool since not all studies can be done on a real human. In order to gain insight into off-body communication involving a worn antenna, this paper uses a 3D animated model obtained from a 3D surface scanner and a motion capture system for full wave simulation of channels at 2.45 and 5.5GHz. To evaluate if the model can represent body area radio channels in general, a comparison of S21 of the simulated model with measurements from 5 other models of similar height to the main test subject is presented.