Contactless Multiscale Measurement of Cardiac Motion Using Biomedical Radar Sensor.

IntroductionA contactless multiscale cardiac motion measurement method is proposed using impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar at a center frequency of 7.29 GHz.MotivationElectrocardiograph (ECG), heart sound, and ultrasound are traditional state-of-the-art heartbeat signal measurement methods. These methods suffer from defects in contact and the existence of a blind information segment during the cardiogram measurement.MethodsExperiments and analyses were conducted using coarse-to-fine scale. Anteroposterior and along-the-arc measurements were taken from five healthy male subjects (aged 25–43) when lying down or prone. In every measurement, 10 seconds of breath-holding data were recorded with a radar 55 cm away from the body surface, while the ECG was monitored simultaneously as a reference.ResultsCardiac motion detection from the front was superior to that from the back in amplitude. In terms of radar detection angles, the best cardiac motion information was observed at a detection angle of 120°. Finally, in terms of cardiac motion cycles, all the ECG information, as well as short segments of cardiac motion details named blind ECGs segments, were detected.SignificanceA contactless and multiscale cardiac motion detection method is proposed with no blind detection of segments during the entire cardiac cycle. This paves the way for a potentially significant method of fast and accurate cardiac disease assessment and diagnosis that exhibits promising application prospects in contactless online cardiac monitoring and in-home healthcare.