Abstract
Purpose
Multiple surface electrodes must be attached to the skin for high-accuracy signal source position estimation inside the human body, and can be uncomfortable for the subject. This paper presents a method for signal source position estimation inside the human body to solve this problem. In our method, the human body is modeled as an electrical circuit, consisting of an internal resistance and a potential source, which can both be measured simultaneously via two surface electrodes using switching voltage divider technology. The purpose of this study is to reduce the number of electrodes required for human body signal source localization, and the estimation ability of the proposed method is confirmed here.
Methods
A single signal source consisting of positive and negative poles was set inside a water tank filled with tap water to simulate a human body, and a sine wave was generated using this signal source. Stainless steel measurement electrodes were used to obtain the signal source potential and internal resistance. Equations representing the signal source position were developed using the information at each electrode, and signal source position was estimated by solving simultaneous equations.
Results
Signal source position was estimated correctly with maximum localization error of 2.6 mm.
Conclusion
Our method showed that the signal source position inside a water tank filled with tap water can be estimated using internal resistance. This paper presents preliminary study results towards our final goal of the signal source position estimation inside a human heart using small numbers of electrodes.
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Sakaue, Y., Makikawa, M. Novel estimation method of signal source position inside a human body using switching voltage divider: A preliminary Study. Biomed. Eng. Lett. 5, 263–270 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-015-0195-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-015-0195-x