Millimeter-Wave Radar Cane: A Blind People Aid With Moving Human Recognition Capabilities

• Published in: IEEE journal of electromagnetics, RF and microwaves in medicine and biology Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 204 - 211
• Main Authors: Cardillo, Emanuele, Li, Changzhi, Caddemi, Alina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01-06-2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Blind people; Breathing rate; Chirp; electronic travel aid (ETA); frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW); History; microwave and millimeter-wave radar; Millimeter wave radar; Millimeter waves; Moving targets; People with disabilities; Physiology; Radar; Radar detection; range alignment; range migration; Signal processing algorithms; visually impaired and blind people; vital sign detection
• ISSN: 2469-7249; 2469-7257
• DOI: 10.1109/JERM.2021.3117129

This contribution presents an electronic travel aid for blind and visually-impaired people based on a millimeter wave radar and a traditional white-cane. It not only represents an advanced system able to warn the user of potential obstacles, but also discerns between human and nonhuman targets. Since real scenarios would likely have moving targets, a new range alignment technique has been proposed with the aim of detecting the tiny chest displacement due to the physiological activity as the key sign of the human presence. The proposed system is able to properly recognize humans in complex environments with multiple moving targets, thus providing to the user a complete set of information, namely presence, position and nature of the available targets. The operating principle and the effectiveness of the system are shown both by simulated case studies and by employing a 122 GHz radar board for carrying out suitable measurements.