Wireless Vital Sign Monitoring Using Penetrating Impulses

This letter proposes a system using impulses that penetrate the body to detect vital signs such as respiration and heart rate. Existing wireless vital sign monitoring systems use continuous-wave (CW) Doppler radar to monitor vital signs with reflected waves from the body, which suffer from a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The proposed system improves upon previous systems by using penetrating impulses. In this method, respiration and heart rate can be monitored more clearly with a high SNR. In particular, heart-beat signals match exactly with electrocardiogram (ECG) signals that are measured at the same time. Finally, an experiment, conducted in an aluminum chamber where multipath exists, suggests the possibility that this system can be applied to automobiles.