Energy-efficient sensing with Physically-secure communication for bio-sensors on, around and within the Human Body is a major area of research today for development of low-cost healthcare, enabling continuous monitoring and/or secure, perpetual operation. These devices, when used as a network of nodes form the Internet of Bodies (IoB), which poses certain challenges including stringent resource constraints (power/area/computation/memory), simultaneous sensing and communication, and security vulnerabilities as evidenced by the DHS and FDA advisories. One other major challenge is to find an efficient on-body energy harvesting method to support the sensing, communication, and security sub-modules. Due to the limitations in the harvested amount of energy, we require reduction of energy consumed per unit information, making the use of in-sensor analytics/processing imperative. In this paper, we review the challenges and opportunities in low-power sensing, processing and communication, with possible powering modalities for future bio-sensor nodes. Specifically, we analyze, compare and contrast (a) different sensing mechanisms such as voltage/current domain vs time-domain, (b) low-power, secure communication modalities including wireless techniques and human-body communication, and (c) different powering techniques for both wearable devices and implants.

翻译：针对人体内部、表面及周围的生物传感器，实现能效优化的感知与物理安全通信，是当前低成本医疗健康系统研发的核心领域。此类系统支持持续监测和/或安全永续运行。当这些设备组成节点网络时，即形成人体物联网（IoB），其面临多重挑战：严格的资源约束（功耗/面积/计算能力/存储空间）、同步感知与通信需求，以及美国国土安全部（DHS）和食品药品监督管理局（FDA）警告中提及的安全漏洞。另一关键挑战在于寻找高效的人体能量收集方法，以支撑感知、通信及安全子模块的运行。由于可收集能量有限，需降低单位信息能耗，这使得传感器内分析/处理功能成为必要。本文综述了低功耗感知、处理与通信的机遇与挑战，并探讨未来生物传感器节点的潜在供能模式。具体包括：（a）对比分析电压/电流域及时域等不同感知机制；（b）评估低功耗安全通信方式，涵盖无线技术与人体通信；（c）探讨可穿戴设备及植入式装置的不同供能技术。