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Wearable Electrically Small Resonant Loops for Seamless Motion Capture and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs)

Mishra, Vigyanshu

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Electrical and Computer Engineering.
This dissertation develops the foundation of two novel smart, functionalized and truly wearable clothing based technologies that break the state-of-the-art boundaries in terms of seamlessness and performance, (a) for motion capture, and (b) for realizing Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). Electrically Small Resonant Loop (ESRL) is devised as basic building block for both the technologies. For motion capture, transmit and receive ESRLs are used that are capable of monitoring joint flexion/extension and/or rotation seamlessly, without obstructing natural motion, in real-time and in natural settings of the individual. Three different sensor variants are developed, forming foundational blocks of the technology, (a) Transverse Configuration (TC), (b) Longitudinal Configuration (LC) and, (c) Longitudinal-Transverse-Longitudinal Configuration (LTLC). TC is capable of monitoring joint flexion while being robust to rotation. LC is capable of monitoring joint flexion and rotation simultaneously while also offering better flexion resolution compared to TC. However, its resolution and performance is hindered by inherent ambiguities. LTLC eliminates the ambiguity present in LC, while concurrently improving flexion and rotation resolution. Further, in vivo tests on a dog model under static scenarios confirm the sensor’s operation on living beings. Safety aspects are taken into account and detailed design guidelines are discussed to enable translation as per requirement. For WBANs, a wearable magnetoinductive waveguide (MIW) is developed which is formed using series of body-worn ESRLs. This WBAN is capable of offering extremely low loss, low power requirements, negligible interference, secure and safe connectivity across the body, thereby overcoming shortcomings of state-of-the-art. Two different designs are developed here, (a) axial, and (b) planar. The axial design can be wrapped around any part of the human body to form a low-loss, high bandwidth WBAN. The planar design, on the other hand, allows a uniform WBAN across the human body that has frequency scaling capability and is not constrained by anatomical geometries unlike the axial design. For both designs, a quantitative comparison versus the state-of-the-art shows improvement of over 5-6 orders (over 50-60 dB) in path loss across a communication distance of ∼40 cm. Detailed design guidelines and optimization procedures are laid out for further development and implementation per need basis. Furthermore, an alternate generic theoretical method is reported to obtain dispersion diagrams of MIWs with additional information and insights not possible via prior methods. In addition to the above, elaborate preliminary designs/results inform the future work. First, in vivo experiments validate the feasibility of dynamic motion capture of human knee joint. Second, an experimental comparison of copper wire and e-thread in 1 KHz to 10 GHz frequency range provides foundational guidelines for translation of diverse technologies across different frequency ranges, demonstrating feasibility of direct translation of both motion capture and WBAN technologies developed in this work. Additionally, results for simultaneous monitoring of bilateral knee flexion (i.e. monitoring knee joint of both legs) provide direction to extend the sensor to full-body motion capture. Finally, design/results detailing fabric drift, requirement of calibration and denoising; proximity to conductors and its effect on the technology; equivalent circuit model of MIW-WBANs; other MIW-WBAN designs; and extension of MIW-WBANs to implants, among others, provide additional glimpse into the future. Overall, this dissertation aims to offer game-changing opportunities by: (a) redefining the way human body motion is monitored at present, and (b) pioneering ultra-low-loss, low-power, flexible, reliable, and seamless WBANs that can ultimately connect diverse wearable/implantable sensors. This, in turn, can bring unprecedented benefits to healthcare, sports, human-machine interaction and many more to create a positive societal impact.
Asimina Kiourti (Advisor)
Robert Lee (Committee Member)
Fernando Teixeira (Committee Member)
213 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mishra, V. (2021). Wearable Electrically Small Resonant Loops for Seamless Motion Capture and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1638199558008265

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mishra, Vigyanshu. Wearable Electrically Small Resonant Loops for Seamless Motion Capture and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1638199558008265.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mishra, Vigyanshu. "Wearable Electrically Small Resonant Loops for Seamless Motion Capture and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs)." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1638199558008265

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)