Motion signature analysis for microwave detection systems

The motion signature concept is based on the postulate that an object moving in the beam of a microwave detection system will induce a distinct pattern in the received signal level. It has been proposed that this concept could be used in microwave systems to distinguish between human and non-human movement, hence facilitating superior detection performance. This paper describes an independent study into this idea based on comparison and analysis of motion signatures collected from practical testing. The first component of this study has shown that human motion signatures are sufficiently different from those produced by animals and inanimate objects. The second component has then examined the ways in which different human movement rates, paths, and masses have affected the time and frequency domain characteristics of motion signatures for walking and running human subjects. This study has demonstrated that the use of motion signatures for alarm discrimination is theoretically sound, and has provided an increased understanding of the impact of different variables on human signatures. It has been concluded, however, that the large number of variables in practical situations would require significant processing sophistication for discrimination to be based on the motion signature concept alone.