Non-Invasive and Quick Respiratory-Rate Monitoring at Bedtime Using Passive RFIDs

Human monitoring systems have a major potential in the development of smart homes. Elderly people need to be monitored to avoid physical accidents or to track health concerns, and young people look for an improved health care environment. This study focused on monitoring the respiratory rate of an individual to check the quality of sleep, and proposed a long-term, non-invasive bedtime respiratory rate monitoring system employing a passive radio frequency identification device. The proposed system has three main characteristics: (1) It monitors the real-time respiratory rate; (2) it records the change of respiratory rate for a long term and; (3) it does not require the user to wear any device. An overview and the evaluations of the system are discussed herein. The results of the evaluations confirmed that the proposed system can estimate respiratory rate without regard to the user's body posture, body type, gender, and change in respiratory rate.