Bio-Medical Sensing using Ultra Wideband Communications and Radar Technology: A Feasibility Study

The aim of this work is to study the application of ultra wideband (UWB) technology to perform biomedical sensing and vital signs monitoring in humans. Among the numerous signals that can be measured, the heart rate (HR) is chosen as the first objective due to its importance. The research is pointed towards the development of a technique that can allow both, radar sensing and communications using the same UWB transceiver. Such a sensor, could use UWB radar principles to measure the heart beat rate and UWB communication standards to transmit these measurements. Readily available commercial transceivers with minor adaptations will be considered as possible to solve for the physical layer. Signal processing for target detection will be done at higher levels. Having sensors with such "duo" properties can make them ideal nodes for wearable computing, as well as sensor and body area networks