Respiration rate and breathing patterns from Doppler radar measurements

This paper presents an evaluation of microwave Doppler radar used for capturing different types of breathing patterns in addition to the respiration rate. Finding the respiration rate is equally important as identifying abnormal breathing patterns which it could be used to gain a better insight into respiratory disorders. Various known breathing disorders were role played and captured using a non-contact microwave Doppler radar which further supports the feasibility of Doppler radar in obtaining an accurate detection of different types of breathing patterns. The results obtained for all the experiments were compared with a standard measurement apparatus, respiration strap, yielding a good correlations with the Doppler radar signals. In a nutshell, Doppler radar can be potentially used as an alternative approach, not only for finding the respiration rates, but also for identifying respiration patterns replacing the conventional contact methods.