Capacitive sensing and communicating

摘要

The invention relates to a device being placeable on or close to a human or animal body, wherein the device comprises a sensing unit configured to capacitively sense a physiological signal from the human or animal body and capacitively communicate a body coupled communication signal for a body area network (BAN). With the device a single sensing unit can be used to sense or measure a physiological signal and communicate a body coupled communication signal. Advantageously, the same couplers can simultaneously be used for sensing, transmitting and receiving. The device does not require an extra antenna and RF unit and there is no need for using wires.

主权项

1. A device being placeable on or close to a human or animal body, the device comprising:
a sensing unit configured to capacitively sense a physiological signal during predetermined sensing periods from said human or animal body and to capacitively communicate a body coupled communication signal during predetermined transmission periods, a combining unit configured to generate combined data by combining at least one of: data generated by said device at different points in time and data generated by said device and a plurality of other devices, the combining unit being further configured to combine different measured data to decide or derive a further estimate of a physiological quantity, a transmit data generating unit configured to generate transmit data from at least one of stored data, said combined data and other data, a detecting unit configured to detect data conveyed by a received body coupled communication (BCC) RX signal transmitted from another device, wherein said device is configured to communicate in a synchronous manner with said plurality of other devices such that no device communicates with another device during a sensing period by time multiplexing said predetermined measurement periods and said predetermined transmission periods of each device such that a first predetermined number of time slots are allocated to said predetermined sensing periods and a second predetermined number of time slots are allocated to said predetermined transmission periods.