Utilization of Low-Cost Pulse Coherent Radar for Physiological Assessment in Vehicle Interior

Contactless human monitoring and radar have been a discussion topic in vehicular technology. This technology applied to interior monitoring may open new opportunities for assistance systems that provide information about the passenger's health condition. This paper characterizes the usage of a low-cost single radio-frequency pulse radar as a mean to assess driver's respiration and heart rate inside a vehicle. Real data acquisition was performed and the accuracy of the radar evaluated against a ground truth (ECG). Two signal processing techniques were applied and in each proposed scenario: FFT and EMD, where FFT presented a better curve fitting and higher accuracy.