Monitoring of thoracic activity using electromagnetic coupling

This paper gives an analysis of noncontact monitoring of thoracic activity by electromagnetic coupling between a sensor coil and thoracic tissue (sometimes called Magnetic induction monitoring). In this context, thoracic activity comprises respiratory and cardiac activity as well as further body motion. The physical principle of the measurement technique is described and several wearable and stationary monitoring devices developed by the authors are presented. Sensor characteristics are investigated in laboratory experiments and the suitability of the measurement method for homemonitoring systems is evaluated in different medical applications on healthy volunteers. This work intends to give an overview about the findings achieved by the authors and, therefore, summarizes information already been published elsewhere.