Title: Experiences on bio-medical sensing using ultra wideband communications and radar technology

Authors: Carlos G. Bilich

Addresses: Industrial Software Technologies, ABB Corporate Research Germany, Wallstadter Str. 59, 68526 Ladenburg, Germany

Abstract: The aim of this work is to study and report some experimental results on the application of ultra wideband (UWB) technology to perform bio-medical sensing and vital signs monitoring in humans. Among the numerous signals that can be measured, the heart rate (HR) was chosen as the first objective due to its importance. The research is pointed towards the development of a technique that can allow both, radar sensing and communications using the same UWB transceiver. Such a sensor could use UWB radar principles to measure the heart beat rate and UWB communication standards to transmit these measurements. A readily available commercial transceiver with no hardware adaptations was used to solve for the physical layer. Wavelets and super-resolution techniques were used for signal processing the echo response achieving a sensing range of 84 cm. Having sensors with such |duo| properties can make them ideal nodes for wearable computing, as well as sensor and body area networks.

Keywords: ultra wideband radar; ultra wideband communications; UWB; heart rate monitoring; contactless vital signs monitoring; heart rate variability; HRV; biomedical sensing; biomedical sensors; wavelets; super-resolution; signal processing; wearable computing; body area networks; medical BANs; e-health; electronic healthcare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJUWBCS.2010.034306

International Journal of Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems, 2010 Vol.1 No.4, pp.248 - 262

Published online: 31 Jul 2010 *

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