RF based feedback system for cardiopulmonary resuscitation

This paper presents a novel approach to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) feedback. The underlying concept is based on an RF transmission through the thorax. With the help of CT images, the link budget is estimated and verified via a full 3D EM simulation of a human body model. Different antennas and operating frequencies between 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz are investigated, in terms of their ability to assist CPR. The fabricated antennas are matched to the thorax wave impedance and were evaluated in animal and human experiments. It is shown that the thorax compression during a CPR can be monitored with the proposed RF based approach.