Feasibility of Signal Transmission for Plant Body Channel Communication in Tobacco

Body channel communication (BCC) is a technique which uses the human body as the medium for carrying various signals, interfacing multiple devices — for example, sensors — with a single gateway. Plant body channel communication (PBCC) is a new technique based on the same fundamentals as BCC, using the plant’s body for signal transmission. As a feasibility study for PBCC, a four-electrode setup — two for the transmitter and two for the receiver — was installed on Nicotiana tabacum plants, and the signal attenuation through the stems was studied in both frequency and time domains. We show that for multiple plants, the attenuation follows a consistent trend with respect to frequency.