Radar Evaluation Setup for the Replication of Chest Wall Movement from Vital Signs

In this paper we present a setup to generate micro movement which is analog to the chest wall micro movement from vital signs. The movement is produced by a loudspeaker powered by a function generator. Since it is difficult to isolate and reproduce effects in the context of vital signs measurements with the human body, this setup allows an easier development of radar post processing algorithms. In addition, some effects are difficult to measure with a human, for example heart diseases like cardiac arrhythmia. To evaluate the setup, we present reference measurements with a human. Also, we show the results of measurements with the setup made with three different radar systems, which use different center frequencies: 24 GHz, 60 GHz and 77 GHz. The setup is able to create absolutely smooth and exact movement which is linear to the applied voltage. This is important in order to simulate several effects in the heart and breathing movement.