Research on generic in-body electromagnetic wave propagation and application for body area network

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K06054
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Communication/Network engineering
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Aoyagi Takahiro 東京工業大学, 工学院, 准教授 (10302944)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 電波伝搬 / 生体内計測 / ボディエリアネットワーク / ヘルスケア・医療情報通信技術 / 機械学習 / 散乱係数 / 貫通導波管法 / 腹部脂肪

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aimed to investigate in-body electromagnetic wave propagation mainly for body area network tele communications and an application of it. As an application of in-body wave propagation, abdominal fat measurement, which is usually performed in annual health check, by microwave was chosen. On designing a system that use in-body wave propagation, characterization of in-body propagation channel is necessary. In this research, frequencies are geometry of the rectangular wave guide are investigated to perform efficient measurement of abdominal fat. As consider these with real human abdomen is difficult, numerical simulations are performed. As a result, an appropriate size and frequencies are found. In the simulations, layered cylindrical and elliptic model that emulates human abdomen are used for investigation. To estimate human abdomen from measured scattering coefficients, a neural network is used and successful estimations are used in certain accuracy.

Free Research Field

環境電磁工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

社会的意義として、これまで生体内の様相を精度良く測定するためには、CTスキャンなどの機材が必要であったが、本研究の成果によりCTスキャンよりは精度が低いが、腹囲測定よりは高精度な腹部の脂肪量推定が低コストで行える可能性がある。例えば毎年の健康診断などで行うことにより、脂肪の蓄積によるメタボリックシンドロームを予防につながると考えられる。学術的異議としては、これまで、生体内でマイクロ波を用いて測定を行うアプリケーションは超音波やX線、MRI等に比べ多くなく、今後、高周波数化や高精度化を目指すことにより、従来これらの測定法ではできなかった検査が行えることも考えられ、今後の研究の発展が期待できる。