Cardiorespiratory Frequency Monitoring Using the Principal Component Analysis Technique on UWB Radar Signal

Abstract

In this paper, Principal Component Analysis technique is applied on the signal measured by an ultra wide-band radar to compute the breath and heart rate of volunteers. The measurement set-up is based on an indirect time domain reflectometry technique, using an ultra wide-band antenna in contact with the subject’s thorax, at the heart height, and a vector network analyzer. The Principal Component Analysis is applied on the signal reflected by the thorax and the obtained breath frequencies are compared against measures acquired by a piezoelectric belt, a widely used commercial system for respiratory activity monitoring. Breath frequency results show that the proposed approach is suitable for breath activity monitoring. Moreover, the wearable ultra wide-band radar gives also promising results for heart activity frequency detection.