Remote vital sign detection for rescue, security, and medical care by ultra-wideband pseudo-noise radar

The vitality of a human being is closely connected to temporal variations of its body geometry. This is quite obvious in the case of walking. But also when resting, the motion of inner organs such as lung or heart causes geometric alterations which may be registered by high-resolution ultra-wideband radar. Since the radio waves radiated by such radars are absolutely harmless, they may be deployed for monitoring of resident activities helping to ensure health, safety, and well-being of aged or needy people. These waves may also penetrate most of building materials and snow which makes them useful to detect earthquake and avalanche survivors, too. The most challenging task is the registration of respiration activity of an unconscious person. The principle of breathing motion detection by radar is explained and the major handicaps as well as appropriate counter measures are discussed. The possible structure of a survivor and residential injury detection radar system is considered and some results from field trials are summarized.