Diversity-Enhanced Robust Device-Free Vital Signs Monitoring Using mmWave Signals

Jinyu Liu, Jie Wang, Qinghua Gao, Xuanheng Li, Miao Pan, Yuguang Fang

Abstract: Device-free vital signs monitoring is an emerging technology that utilizes the unique influence of chest vibrations on surrounding wireless signals to achieve vital signs monitoring in a device-free and contact-free manner. Existing methods could achieve good monitoring performance when high-quality reflected signals can be obtained. However, in daily vital signs monitoring at home, the received reflected signals are often very weak due to factors such as obstruction and attenuation, resulting in a sharp decrease in the monitoring performance. To address the aforementioned challenges, in this paper, we develop a diversity-enhanced robust device-free vital signs monitoring system using mmWave signals. Specifically, inspired by the concept of diversity in the field of communications, we propose a diversity-enhanced wireless sensing strategy that comprehensively utilizes multi-dimensional physical layer resources, including antennas, chirps, and space, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of vital signs. Additionally, inspired by cameras that achieve clear images by prolonging exposure time, we propose an accumulation-enhanced localization method to lock onto the chest of the human body in complex scenarios. Extensive experiments on a 60 GHz mmWave testbed demonstrate that our developed system could guarantee robust vital signs monitoring performance in various challenging scenarios, even at distances of up to 40 m.