COMMUNICATION APPARATUS

• US 20080287061A1
• Filed: 04/21/2008
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kim, Jin-Kyung, Kang, Sung-Weon, Hwang, Jung-Hwan, Hyoung, Chang-Hee, Park, Duck-Gun, Sung, Jin-Bong
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/005 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the human body

Abstract

The present invention provides a communication apparatus being in directly contact with a human body and using the human body as a transmission channel for data communication. The communication apparatus attached to the human body transmits a signal in the form of a current, receives a signal transmitted from another communication apparatus attached to the human body therethrough, and eliminates noise included in the received signal. In addition, the communication apparatus compares the noise-eliminated signal and a reference signal and recovers an original signal. Further, the communication apparatus generates a base-band signal and transmits the same through the human body.

Claims

1. A human body communication apparatus for intermediating between a host that is capable of transmitting data and a human body, and transmitting/receiving data through the human body, the human body communication apparatus comprising:

an electrode unit, being in direct contact with the human body, for transmitting a signal in the form of a current through the human body and receiving a signal from the human body;

a high pass filter for eliminating noise included in the signal received through the electrode unit;

a comparator for comparing the signal transmitted through the high pass filter and a reference voltage; and

a controller for recovering the signal transmitted through the comparator, transmitting the recovered signal to the host, generating a base-band signal, and transmitting the base-band signal to the human body through the electrode unit.

2. The human body communication apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an amplifier for amplifying the signal transmitted from the high pass filter and transmitting the amplified signal to the comparator.

3. The human body communication apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a clock and data recovery (CDR) unit for analyzing the signal transmitted from the comparator and perceiving start and end times of recovering of the received signal.

4. The human body communication apparatus of claim 3, wherein the controller generates a signal by employing pulse coding modulation.

5. The human body communication apparatus of claim 4, wherein the controller recovers the received signal and transmits the recovered signal to the host connected with the communication apparatus.

6. The human body communication apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a direct-current/direct-current (DC/DC) converter for increasing an output voltage of the comparator.

7. The human body communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the high pass filter comprises:

a delay unit for delaying and outputting the signal received through the electrode unit;

a low pass filter for processing the received signal; and

a subtractor for subtracting output signals of the delay unit and the low pass filter.

8. The human body communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrode unit comprises a plurality of electrodes having different sizes, respectively.

9. The human body communication apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a switch for controlling transmitting and blocking of signals to the plurality of electrodes.

10. The human body communication apparatus of claim 9, wherein the switch sets one of the plurality of electrodes to be a ground electrode when the communication apparatus is used for data transmission.