Sensitivity Enhanced Vital Sign Detection Based on Antenna Reflection Coefficient Variation

This paper presents a vital sign detection sensor based on reflection coefficient variance from an antenna used in wireless communication devices. The near-field effect is estimated by performing 3D full-wave simulations using a dipole antenna and the magnitude variation of the reflection coefficient induced by human thorax movement due to heart and lungs is observed. The results support the possibility of vital sign detection based on the magnitude variation of the reflection coefficient from an antenna, which can be explained as a narrowband modulation scheme. In particular, a sensitivity enhancement method is proposed and analyzed, and experiments are carried out for heartbeat detection using a dipole antenna with the proposed system. Experimental results are compared between the direct detection and sensitivity enhancement detection schemes. FM signal is also applied to confirm that the proposed sensor works properly in conjunction with an existing communication system. The proposed cardiopulmonary detection sensor is implemented with off-the-shelf components at 2.4 GHz and excellent performance is obtained.