SNR Improvement for Heart Rate Estimation Using mmWave 79 GHz FMCW MIMO Radar

• Published in: 2023 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility – EMC Europe pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Gilles Yowel, Massala Mboyi, Oh, Dong-Hyun, Kim, Hyung-Ju, Jeong, Byung-Jang, Han, Jung-Hoon
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 04-09-2023
• Subjects: Analytic Signal; Electromagnetic compatibility; Heart rate; Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Radar; Power Spectral Density; Quadrature Detection; Radar; Real-time systems; Recording; Sensors; Wearable computers
• ISSN: 2325-0364
• DOI: 10.1109/EMCEurope57790.2023.10274298

Recently, interest in various engineering technologies for medical purposes has been increasing. Various biometric information can be obtained by remotely sensing signals of a human body using a radar. Typically, remote recording of heart movements allows researchers to calculate the heart rate and infer the heart condition. In addition, through these algorithms, it is possible to provide doctors with a non-face-to-face treatment support system for real-time monitoring information such as patients with heart disease. In this article, we will outline a novel mathematical model for extracting the cardiac signal utilizing the analytic signal argument of the inphase channel. The power spectral density of the latter will then be used to measure the heart rate. Raw data are extracted from a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) 79 GHz Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar designed in our laboratory. In order to evaluate the performance of our model, we also collected heart rate reference values using a wearable device called a photoplethysmograph (PPG). Finally, we made a comparison between our proposed method and the conventional method based on signal spectrum analysis. The outcomes demonstrate that, for our use case, our suggested procedure worked better than the conventional approach and significantly increased the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).