Electrode diversity for body-coupled communication systems
First Claim
1. A coupler device for a body-coupled communication, said coupler device being configured to be placed at or in close proximity to a human or animal body and comprising:
- an electrode arrangement consisting of a plurality of electrodes or electrode segments adapted to be separately connectable and having different mutual orientations with respect to the surface of said human or animal body to achieve electrode diversity,wherein a first subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise signal electrodes for receiving data signals, said signal electrodes having higher than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body and a second subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise reference electrodes having lower than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body, andwherein the average electrical coupling is a pre-determined threshold level based on an average detected signal strength of the plurality of electrodes;
wherein signals from the different subsets of electrodes are combined to provide enhanced reception power or quality for the different mutual orientations of the electrodes or electrode segments of the electrode arrangement.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to coupler device, processing apparatus and method of processing a plurality of body-coupled communication signals which have been detected by using an electrode arrangement with a plurality of electrodes or electrode segments (40, 42; 40, 43). Respective transmission parameters of the body-coupled communication signals are estimated and at least one of a selecting and weighting processing is applied to the detected body-coupled communication signals based on the estimated transmission parameters. Then, the processed body-coupled communication signals are combined to generate a diversity output signal. Thereby, robustness against coupler misplacement and user convenience is increased in body-coupled or body-based communication systems.
22 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A coupler device for a body-coupled communication, said coupler device being configured to be placed at or in close proximity to a human or animal body and comprising:
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an electrode arrangement consisting of a plurality of electrodes or electrode segments adapted to be separately connectable and having different mutual orientations with respect to the surface of said human or animal body to achieve electrode diversity, wherein a first subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise signal electrodes for receiving data signals, said signal electrodes having higher than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body and a second subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise reference electrodes having lower than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body, and wherein the average electrical coupling is a pre-determined threshold level based on an average detected signal strength of the plurality of electrodes; wherein signals from the different subsets of electrodes are combined to provide enhanced reception power or quality for the different mutual orientations of the electrodes or electrode segments of the electrode arrangement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An apparatus for processing a plurality of body-coupled communication signals, said apparatus comprising:
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a) a plurality of input terminals for receiving said plurality of body-coupled communication signals, wherein said plurality of input terminals are coupled to a respective plurality of electrodes or electrode segments adapted to be separately connectable and having different mutual orientations with respect to the surface of a human or animal body to achieve electrode diversity, wherein a first subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise signal electrodes for receiving said body-coupled communication signals, said first subset of signal electrodes having higher than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body and a second subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise reference electrodes having lower than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body, and wherein the average electrical coupling is a pre-determined threshold level based on an average detected signal strength of the plurality of electrodes; b) an estimator for estimating respective transmission parameters of said body-coupled communication signals; and c) a signal processor for applying at least one of a selecting and weighting processing to said received body-coupled communication signals and for combining the processed body-coupled communication signals to generate a diversity output signal, wherein said selecting and weighting processing is controlled based on said estimated transmission parameters. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of processing a plurality of body-coupled communication signals, said method comprising:
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a) detecting body-coupled communication signals by using an electrode arrangement with a plurality of electrodes or electrode segments having different mutual orientations with respect to the surface of said human or animal body to achieve electrode diversity, wherein a first subset of said plurality of electrodes or electrode segments comprise signal electrodes for receiving data signals, said signal electrodes having higher than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body and a second subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise reference electrodes having lower than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body, wherein the average electrical coupling is a pre-determined threshold level based on an average detected signal strength of the plurality of electrodes; b) estimating respective transmission parameters of said body-coupled communication signals; and c) processing the received body coupled communication signals by applying at least one of a selecting and weighting processing based on said estimated respective transmission parameters; and d) combining the processed body-coupled communication signals to generate a diversity output signal. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer program product in one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, comprising code means that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform actions of:
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a) detecting body-coupled communication signals by using an electrode arrangement with a plurality of electrodes or electrode segments wherein a first subset of said plurality of electrodes or electrode segments comprise signal electrodes for receiving data signals, said signal electrodes having higher than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body and a second subset of said plurality of electrodes comprise reference electrodes having lower than average electrical coupling to the human or animal body, wherein the average electrical coupling is a pre-determined threshold level based on an average detected signal strength of the plurality of electrodes; b) estimating respective transmission parameters of said body-coupled communication signals; and c) processing the detected body-coupled communication signals by applying at least one of a selecting and weighting processing to said body-coupled communication signals based on said estimated transmission parameters; and d) combining the processed body-coupled communication signals to generate a diversity output signal.
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Specification