Remote monitoring of human vital signs using mm-wave FMCW radar

Electromagnetic radars have been shown potentially to be used for remote sensing of biosignals in a more comfortable and easier way than wearable and contact devices. While there is an increasing interest in using radars for health monitoring, their performance has not been tested and reported either in practical scenarios or with acceptable low errors. Therefore, we use a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar operating at 77 GHz in a bedroom environment to extract the respiration and heart rates of a patient, who is used to lying down on the bed. Indeed, the proposed signal processing contains advanced phase unwrapping manipulation, which is unique. In addition, the results are compared with a reliable reference sensor. Our results show that the correlations between the reference sensor and the radar estimates are in 94% and 80% for breathing and heart rates, respectively.