Sleep well! This radar system can monitor body’s vital signs wirelessly

Scientists have developed a radar system that can wirelessly monitor the vital signs of patients, eliminating the need to hook them up to any machines. Housed in a device smaller than a cellphone, the new technology records heart and breathing rates using sensitive radar waves that are analyzed by sophisticated algorithms embedded in an onboard digital signal processing unit.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo developed the system to monitor sleep apnea patients by

detecting subtle chest movements instead of connecting them to equipment in labs via numerous cumbersome wires. “We take the whole complex process and make it completely wireless,” said George Shaker, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Waterloo.

“And instead of a clinic, it could be done in the comfort of your own bed and run daily for continuous monitoring,” Shaker said in a statement. The radar unit was mounted to the ceiling over the bed of more than 50 volunteers as they slept normally in a model long-term care apartment. The system, which collects and analyses data from radar waves that are reflected back to the unit from the bodies of patients, achieved results over 90 per cent as accurate as standard hard-wired equipment.

Read the full article in the Indian Financial Express.