Research

Project Title:
Interaction of Emerging Mobile Telecommunications Systems with the Human Body

Start Date:
April 2002

Expected Date of Completion:
June 2006

Cost:
£454,000

Principal Investigator:
Dr Stuart Porter

Contact Details:
Applied Electromagnetics Group
Department of Electronics
University of York
Heslington, York,
UK.
YO1 5DD

Expertise:

Computer modelling of electromagnetic fields; design of systems to measure electromagnetic fields reliably; studies of interference between electronic systems; design of antennas for communication systems.

Approach:

The main aim of the project is to provide reliable, validated data on the electromagnetic field strengths and energy deposition within the human body associated with current and future mobile telecommunication use.

This includes the development of techniques to determine the human exposure to such systems. Different areas to be studied include hand-held mobile phones, hands-free sets used with mobile phones, laptops with antennas built in, wearable PC's and base stations.

The work will also develop reliable methods for the testing of such devices as listed above.

The aim will be achieved by computer modelling and experiments. Computer models of humans and mobile phones will be developed for a range of situations where the devices listed above will be used. Physical models of humans will be constructed and used for the measurements. For both experiments and computer simulation, the techniques used will include analysis of the variability of mobile telecommunication devices and situations.

Potential Difficulties:

Care has to be taken to ensure that the computer models are reliable and thatthe physical models are representative of real systems and humans.

Importance:

A successful outcome to the work will enable us to inform medical community studies of any possible health effects of the size of electromagnetic fields and energies that are likely to be present within the human body due to the range of current and upcoming mobile devices. We also aim to specify hardware that can be used to study any possible health effects.

An additional important outcome will be a set of methods to accurately test the exposure caused by new technologies, along with guidance on the factors that effect the accuracy and reproducibility of such methods.