Accurate Heart Rate Estimation Based on Multi-Channel Cross-Correlation with a 60-GHz FMCW Radar

Radar-based vital sign monitoring has excellent potential for future telemedicine and intelligent aging. However, it is still difficult to estimate heart rate accurately at low signal-to-noise levels. In this work, a novel multi-channel cross-correlation algorithm based on single-input-multi-output (SIMO) frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar is proposed for accurate heart rate estimation. The multi-channel cross-correlation algorithm can extract the periodic components (caused by heartbeat) from the chest displacement and suppress the non-periodic noise, thus enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the heart rate spectrum. The experimental results show that the multi-channel cross-correlation algorithm proposed in this paper can still estimate heart rate accurately when the conventional heart rate extraction algorithm fails to work.