A novel method for noninvasive bioelectric measurement utilizing conductivity of seawater

Abstract A novel method of noninvasive bioelectric measurement that utilizes the conductivity of seawater covering a person’s whole body is proposed. Concretely, a conductor used as a common electrode is sunk into the seawater, and four special bioelectrodes isolated from the seawater are attached at measurement points on the body. Bioelectric signals generated between the common electrode and special bioelectrodes are then measured. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, bioelectric signals of six participants immersed in a bathtub filled with seawater were experimentally measured. The measurement results revealed that the proposed method enables multipoint bioelectric measurement using about half the number of bioelectrodes used by the conventional method on land, and a plurality of bioelectric phenomena can be observed at one measurement point. It was also revealed that compared with the conventional method, the proposed method significantly reduces external electrical noise included in the bioelectric signals by exploiting the shielding effect of seawater. If simple bioelectric measurements in seawater were possible in the manner described above, not only people such as scuba divers but also precious animals living in the sea could be noninvasively treated as measurement subjects.