Short-range FMCW monopulse radar for hand-gesture sensing

Intelligent driver assistance systems have become important in the automotive industry. One key element of such systems is a smart user interface that tracks and recognizes drivers´ hand gestures. Hand gesture sensing using traditional computer vision techniques is challenging because of wide variations in lighting conditions, e.g. inside a car. A short-range radar device can provide additional information, including the location and instantaneous radial velocity of moving objects. We describe a novel end-to-end (hardware, interface, and software) short-range FMCW radar-based system designed to effectively sense dynamic hand gestures. We provide an effective method for selecting the parameters of the FMCW waveform and for jointly calibrating the radar system with a depth sensor. Finally, we demonstrate that our system guarantees reliable and robust performance.