Tracking capsule endoscope location is one of the promising applications offered by implant body area networks (BANs). When tracking the capsule endoscope location, i.e., continuously localize it, it is effective to take the weighted sum of its past locations to its present location, in other words, to low-pass filter its past locations. Furthermore, creating an exact mathematical model of location transition will improve tracking performance. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate two tracking methods with received signal strength indicator (RSSI)-based localization in order to solve the capsule endoscope location tracking problem. One of the two tracking methods is finite impulse response (FIR) filter-based tracking, which tracks the capsule endoscope location by averaging its past locations. The other one is particle filter-based tracking in order to deal with a nonlinear transition model on the capsule endoscope. However, the particle filter requires that the particle weight is calculated according to its condition (namely, its likelihood value), while the transition model on capsule endoscope location has some model parameters which cannot be estimated from the received wireless signal. Therefore, for the purpose of applying the particle filter to capsule endoscope tracking, this paper makes some modifications in the resampling step of the particle filter algorithm. Our computer simulation results demonstrate that the two tracking methods can improve the performance as compared with the conventional maximum likelihood (ML) localization. Furthermore, we confirm that the particle filter-based tracking outperforms the conventional FIR filter-based tracking by taking the realistic capsule endoscope transition model into consideration.

Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is now one of most important applications in implant body area networks (BANs). WCE requires high throughput performance due to its real-time data transmission, whereas the communication performance depends much on the transmit power, which is strictly regulated in order to satisfy a safety guideline in terms of specific absorption rate (SAR). Spatial diversity reception is well known to improve the wireless performance without any temporal and spectral resource expansion. Additionally, applying spatial diversity reception to WCE systems can be expected to not only improve the wireless communication performance but also to reduce SAR. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of spatial diversity reception on SAR levels for the 400 MHz medical implant communication service (MICS) band. To begin with, based on finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations for implant BAN propagation with a numerical human body model, we first calculate the BER performance and derive the required transmit power to secure a permissible BER. Then, this paper calculates the local peak SAR under the required transmit power when the implant transmitter moves through the digestive organs. Finally, our simulation results demonstrate that applying spatial diversity reception can significantly reduce SAR in implant BANs.

One of promising application offered by implant body area networks (BANs) is a capsule endoscope localization system. To begin with, this paper performs finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations on implant BAN propagation with a numerical human model, and investigates the propagation characteristics of implant BAN signals at 400 MHz medical implant communication service (MICS) band. Then, the paper presents a capsule endoscope localization system which utilizes only received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and two estimation methods, such as a maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method and a least squares (LS) method. Furthermore, we evaluate the two localization methods by two computer simulation scenarios. Our computer simulation results demonstrate that the ML localization can improve the location estimation accuracy as compared with the LS localization, that is, our performance comparison reveals that a careful consideration the propagation characteristics of implant BANs signals is efficient in terms of estimation performance improvement in capsule endoscope localization.

Body Area Networks (BAN) can provide a wide range of applications including medical support, healthcare monitoring, and consumer electronics with increased convenience or comfort. To harmonize with the strong demands from both medical and healthcare societies, and information and communications technology (ICT) industries, IEEE 802.15.6 task group (TG6) was set up to develop an IEEE wireless standard on BAN. This paper presents a general guidance to TG6. Some pre-works to set up TG6 are reviewed. The objectives, main topics, current status are described in details.