Novel design for heart rate detection using UWB impulse radar on Android platform

Abstract

Measuring the physiological functions of the human body in a noncontact manner is useful for healthcare, security, and surveillance. Radar technology can be used for this purpose. In this paper, a new real-time method for the Android platform is proposed to detect the human heart rate using ultra-wideband impulse radar. The amplitude spectra of the radar pulse reflected from the human body are accumulated at specific time intervals, and the heartbeat frequency is obtained by applying the fast Fourier transform algorithm. The method offers real-time heartbeat detection with high frequency resolution in the frequency band of the heartbeat of interest. Experimental results further verify that the heart rate variability can be observed using this method. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.