Experimental Demonstration of Accurate Noncontact Measurement of Arterial Pulse Wave Displacements Using 79-GHz Array Radar

Abstract

In this study, we present a quantitative evaluation of the accuracy of simultaneous array-radar-based measurements of the displacements caused at two parts of the human body by arterial pulse wave propagation. To establish the feasibility of accurate radar-based noncontact measurement of this pulse wave propagation, we perform experiments with four participants using a 79-GHz millimeter-wave ultra-wideband multiple-input multiple-output array radar system and a pair of laser displacement sensors. We evaluate the accuracy of the pulse wave propagation measurements by comparing the displacement waveforms that are measured using the radar system with the corresponding waveforms that are measured using the laser sensors. In addition, to evaluate the estimates of the pulse wave propagation channels, we compare the impulse response functions that are calculated from the displacement waveforms obtained from both the radar data and the laser data. The displacement waveforms and the impulse responses both demonstrated the good agreement between the results of the radar and laser measurements. The normalized correlation coefficient between the impulse responses obtained from the radar and laser data on average was as high as 0.97 for the four participants. The results presented here strongly support the feasibility of accurate radar-based noncontact measurement of arterial pulse wave propagation.