mmWaveCam: Human Vital Motion Imaging and Focused Vital Signs’ Sensing

This article presents the development and application of high-resolution radar-based imaging for human morphological analysis, specifically focusing on enhancing vital signs’ detection using millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar technology. The authors use advanced 3-D radar imaging techniques, using multielement uniform linear transmit and receive antenna arrays, to construct detailed grids of radar backscatter points in space. Implementing multi-input multi-output (MIMO) beamforming and motion-enhanced imaging techniques addresses key challenges such as static environmental clutter, multipath interference, and sidelobe effects, which degrade imaging quality. This study introduces a novel approach to vital signs’ analysis by constructing a vital signs’ intensity map, which displays the distribution of respiration and pulse sensitivity across the human chest. This method enables precise body localization for targeted vital signs’ monitoring. The system’s capabilities are validated through both simulation and real-world experiments, demonstrating its effectiveness in various scenarios, including multipoint respiration monitoring, multisubject imaging, and enhanced heartbeat detection through localized measurement. The results of this study highlight the potential of mmWave radar technology for contactless health monitoring, offering significant improvements over traditional radar-based methods in terms of accuracy and spatial resolution. The advanced imaging capabilities developed in this research pave the way for innovative applications in healthcare and human performance monitoring, providing a promising tool for noninvasive vital signs’ sensing.