Toru Sato and Kyoto University and Panasonic colleagues have refined a wireless, radar-based vital measuring device they developed last year.
The original sensor combined a radar with signal analysis algorithms to measure how the body moves as the heart beats. Software filters isolated the heart’s minute motions while the body moved. However it was extremely large.
The team has now integrated:
- A wider 79-GHz frequency band
- Improved measurement sensitivity by integrating CMOS semiconductors into a single chip for millimeter-wave radar
- Increased sensitivity with finer resolution in the distance direction of the measurement range
- Precise separation of the noise that would otherwise affect the estimation accuracy of the heartbeat interval in order to simultaneously measure the heartbeat intervals of several people with a single radar
The device is now 1/10 of its predecessor’s size.
The goal is to seamlessly integrate health sensors in household appliances, such as lighting, to safely, accurately, and unobtrusively monitor residents.
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