• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.123-131
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• 2019

In recent years, a non-contact respiration and heart rates monitoring via IR-UWB radar has been paid much attention to in various applications - patient monitoring, occupancy detection, survivor exploring in disaster area, etc. In this paper, we address a novel approach of real time heart rate estimation using IR-UWB radar. We apply sine fitting and peak detection method for estimating respiration rate and heart rate, respectively. We also deploy two techniques to mitigate the error caused by wrong estimation of respiration rate: a moving average filter and finding the frequency of the highest occurrence. Experimental results show that the algorithm can estimate heart rate in real time when respiration rate is presumed to be estimated accurately.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2022

IR-UWB radar has been regarded as the most promising technology for non-contact respiration and heartbeat monitoring because of its ability of detecting slight motion even in submillimeter range. Measuring heart rate is most challenging since the chest movement by heartbeat is quite subtle and easily interfered with by a random body motion or background noise. Additionally, periodic sampling can be limited by the performance of computer that handles the radar signals. In this paper, we deploy Lomb-Scargle periodogram method that estimates heart rate even with irregularly sampled data and uneven signal amplitude. Lomb-Scargle periodogram is known as a method for finding periodicity in irregularly-sampled and noisy data set. We also implement a motion detection scheme in order to make the heart rate estimation pause when a random motion is detected. Our scheme is implemented using Novelda's X4M03 radar development kit and its corresponding drivers and Python packages. Experimental results show that the estimation with Lomb-Scargle periodogram yield more accurate heart rate than the method of measuring peak-to-peak distance.

• Journal of Multimedia Information System
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2021

Heart Rate is a crucial physiological parameter that provides basic information about the state of the human body in the cardiovascular system, as well as in medical diagnostics and fitness assessments. At present day, it has been demonstrated that facial video-based photoplethysmographic signal captured using a low-cost RGB camera is possible to retrieve remote heart rate. Traditional heart rate measurement is mostly obtained by direct contact with the human body, therefore, it can result inconvenient for long-term measurement due to the discomfort that it causes to the subject. In this paper, we propose a non-contact-based remote heart rate measuring approach of the subject which depends on the color intensity variation of the subject's facial skin. The proposed method is applied in two regions of the subject's face, forehead and cheeks. For this, three different algorithms are used to measure the heart rate. i.e., Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The average accuracy for the three algorithms utilizing the proposed method was 89.25% in both regions. It is also noteworthy that the FastICA algorithm showed a higher average accuracy of more than 92% in both regions. The proposed method obtained 1.94% higher average accuracy than the traditional method based on average color value.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.277-283
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• 2023

Vital signals provide essential information regarding the health status of individuals, thereby contributing to health management and medical research. Present monitoring methods, such as ECGs (Electrocardiograms) and smartwatches, demand proximity and fixed postures, which limit their applicability. To address this, Non-contact vital signal measurement methods, such as CW (Continuous-Wave) radar, have emerged as a solution. However, unwanted signal components and a stepwise processing approach lead to errors and limitations in heart rate detection. To overcome these issues, this study introduces an integrated neural network approach that combines noise removal, demodulation, and dominant-frequency detection into a unified process. The neural network employed for signal processing in this research adopts a MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron) architecture, which analyzes the in-phase and quadrature signals collected within a specified time window, using two distinct input layers. The training of the neural network utilizes CW radar signals and reference heart rates obtained from the ECG. In the experimental evaluation, networks trained on different datasets were compared, and their performance was assessed based on loss and frequency accuracy. The proposed methodology exhibits substantial potential for achieving precise vital signals through non-contact measurements, effectively mitigating the limitations of existing methodologies.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.97-104
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• 2010

In this paper, we provide an embedded type non-contact bio-radar heart and respiration rate monitoring system. We implemented the rate finding algorithm into the embedded system. The high-speed and reliable real-time signal processor is then tested. To avoid null-point data loss problem, we applied quadrature demodulation. Among several other combining techniques, we suggest arctangent demodulation for quadrature channel combining and DSP is used for real-time signal processing. We also suggest DC-offset compensation technique to preserve the wanted DC components of the IQ signals for accurate demodulation while keeping the dynamic range of the ADC lower. Using Texas Instrument C6711 series DSP and external 12Bit ADC, we implemented proper elliptic digital filter and autocorrelation detection algorithm for robust commercial hand held device.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.264-270
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• 2017

A Doppler radar sensor was applied to detect respirations and heartbeats of persons who were lying on a bed. This study is preliminary study aiming at non-contact and non-intrusive respiration and heart rate monitoring during sleep in daily life. For the experiments, 10GHz Doppler radar with patch-type antenna was used and installed on the upper right and the distance between the body and the antenna was 1 m. The results show that each signal of respiration and heartbeat is observed in each frequency band however the frequency band and the waveform vary according to the subjects and the posture. The results show that the heartbeats can be detected with the peak detection in some frequency band. This study shows the feasibility of applying the Doppler radar to detection of heartbeat and respiration during sleep and further studies about heartbeat detection algorithm are required.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.53-67
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• 2011

Human state in human-machine systems highly affects the overall system performance, and should be detected and monitored. Physiological cues are essential indicators of human state and useful for the purpose of monitoring. The study presented in this paper was focused on developing a bio-inspired sensing system, i.e., Nano-Skin, to non-intrusively measure physiological cues on human-machine contact surfaces to detect human state. The paper is presented in three parts. The first part is to analyze the relationship between human state and physiological cues, and to introduce the conceptual design of Nano-Skin. Generally, heart rate, skin conductance, skin temperature, operating force, blood alcohol concentration, sweat rate, and electromyography are closely related with human state. They can be measured through human-machine contact surfaces using Nano-Skin. The second part is to discuss the technologies for skin temperature measurement. The third part is to introduce the design and manufacture of the Nano-Skin for skin temperature measurement. Experiments were performed to verify the performance of the Nano-Skin in temperature measurement. Overall, the study concludes that Nano-Skin is a promising product for measuring physiological cues on human-machine contact surfaces to detect human state.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.364-371
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• 2015

In this study, we developed a feasible structure of a textile-based inductive sensor using a machine embroidery method, and applied it to a non-contact type vital sign sensing device based on the principle of magnetic-induced conductivity. The mechanical heart activity signals acquired through the inductive sensor embroidered with conductive textile on fabric were compared with the Lead II ECG signals and with respiration signals, which were simultaneously measured in every case with five subjects. The analysis result showed that the locations of the R-peak in the ECG signal were highly associated with sharp peaks in the signals obtained through the textile-based inductive sensor (r=0.9681). Based on the results, we determined the feasibility of the developed textile-based inductive sensor as a measurement device for the heart rate and respiration characteristics.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1010-1019
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• 2008

In this paper, we present a noise analysis and measurement results of a bio-radar system that can detect human heartbeat and respiration signals. The noise analysis including various phase noise effects is very important in designing the bio-radar system, since the frequency difference between the received signal and local oscillator is very small and the received power is very low. All of the noise components in a bio-radar system are considered from the point of view of SNR. From this analysis, it can be concluded that the phase noise due to antenna leakage is a dominant factor and is a function of range correlation. Therefore, the phase noise component with range correlation effect, which is the most important noise contribution, is measured using the measurement setup and compared with the calculated results. From the measurement results, our measurement setup can measure a closed-in phase noise of a free-running oscillator. Based on these results, it is possible to design a 2.4 GHz bio-radar system quantitatively which has a detection range of 50 cm and low power of 1 mW without additional PLL circuits.