A Non-Contact Efficient Method for Respiration Rate Localization and Estimation using IR-UWB Radar

Human vital signs (VS) are fundamental to physiological functioning and have a variety of applications, including radar imaging, medical diagnostics, and rigorous patient monitoring. Current research shows that Impulse Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) radar proves useful for monitoring stationary human subjects. However, detecting VS becomes challenging in the presence of high environmental noise. This work proposes an approach to VS detection using a simplified IR-UWB radar architecture to localize and precisely compute the respiration rate (RR) of a stationary person. The proposed method combines auto-correlation and multiple High-Order Cumulant (HOC) algorithms for signal enhancement in weak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) scenarios. Subsequently, to estimate radar-target distance and respiration frequency, a technique based on spectrum maximum detection is used. Experimental results validate the approach's efficiency, allowing accurate VS identification even in difficult settings with low SNR, such as long distances and through-wall scenarios.