Abstract
A compact millimeter-wave (MMW) sensor has been developed for remote monitoring of human vital signs (heart and respiration rate). The low-power homodyne transceiver operating at 94 GHz was assembled by using solid-state active and passive block-type components and can be battery operated. A description of theMMW system front end and the back-end acquisition hardware and software is presented. Representative test case results on the application of various signal processing and data analysis algorithms developed to extract faint physiological signals of interest in presence of strong background interference are provided. Although the laboratory experiments so far have been limited to standoff distances of up to 15 m, the upper limit of the detection range is expected to be higher. In comparison with its microwave counterparts, the MMW system described here provides higher directivity, increased sensitivity, and longer detection range for measuring subtle mechanical displacements associated with heart and respiration functions. The system may be adapted for use in a wide range of standoff sensing applications including for patient health care, structural health monitoring, nondestructive testing, biometric sensing, and remote vibrometry in general.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | 6084834 |
Pages (from-to) | 830-841 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2012 |
Funding
Manuscript received February 23, 2011; revised August 29, 2011; accepted September 14, 2011. Date of publication November 18, 2011; date of current version February 8, 2012. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357 and in part by the National Consortium for Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT). The Associate Editor coordinating the review process for this paper was Dr. Samir Trabelsi.
Keywords
- Biomedical monitoring
- Millimeter-wave (MMW) sensor
- Remote sensing
- Signal processing
- Vital signs
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Instrumentation
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering