IMPLEMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESPIRATION-RATE ESTIMATION USING

IMPULSE-BASED UWB

Swaroop Venkatesh, Christopher R. Anderson, Natalia V. Rivera and R. Michael Buehrer

Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group (MPRG),
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA 24060.
Email:{vswaroop, chanders, nrivera, buehrer}@vt .edu

ABSTRACT advantages such as jamming resistance and low probability

of detection.
Previous work has shown that UWB systems can be used
for remote vital-signs monitoring, with the major appli- II. UWB PULSE-RADAR FOR NON-INVASIVE
cations of these systems being in health monitoring and ESTIMATION OF RESPIRATION RATES
rescue scenarios. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of
impulse-based UWB signals in the robust detection of chest- The use of IR-UWB signals has been suggested [2] for
cavity motion and the accurate estimation of respiration several medical applications because of the high spatial
and heart-beat rates, even in the presence ofphysical ob- resolution provided by these signals. The coefficient of
structions between the subject and the UWB antennas. The reflectivity of air-to-dry-skin interface for electromagnetic
main contribution of this paper is an analytical framework waves in the 300-900MHz range is about 72% [2], which is
for the development of signal processing algorithms to the fraction of the energy of electromagnetic waves incident
estimate respiration and heart rates and corroboration of on dry skin that is reflected. Therefore, in an IR-UWB
the techniques with measurements. The analogy between radar setup, the motion of a human body (henceforth, the
the bandwidth of narrowband Phase-Modulated (PM) sys- "subject") can cause significant changes to the multipath
tems and the estimation problem is recognized through profile. As we show in this paper, the expansion of the chest
this analysis and is used to determine optimal parameters cavity creates an observable change in the multipath profile,
such as pulse width and sampling frequency for future which is exploited to estimate the respiration rate. We
experiments. We also present the results of several real- further demonstrate that accurate respiration rate estimation
time experiments conducted under different scenarios to can be performed in the absence of a direct path between
demonstrate the accuracy of our techniques in determining the transmitter, the subject and the receiver. We also look
respiration and heart-rates. at the possibility of estimating heart rates based on the
above method and present a mathematical framework for
I. INTRODUCTION the analysis of these schemes.
These techniques can particularly be applied to emer-
In February 2002, the FCC legalized the use of Ultra- gency rescue situations. A few situations where this tech-
Wideband (UWB) by releasing a set of spectral masks [1] nology can be applied are listed: (1) As a solution to the
that stipulated the emission level and frequency of operation problem of triage when people are trapped under debris. The
for imaging, radar, and communication purposes, which technology to be described helps us detect the condition of
sparked a huge interest in UWB technology. Impulse Radio people trapped in the debris and allows the speedy allo-
(IR) is a form of UWB signaling which uses streams of cation of personnel based on the measured conditions. (2)
baseband pulses of very short duration, typically on the Through-the-wall health monitoring of victims in hostage
order of a nanosecond, thereby spreading the power spectral rescue scenarios, (3) Detection of skiers trapped under snow
density of the radio signal from near d.c. to a few gigahertz. after an avalanche, (4) Continuous assessment of a patient's
IR-UWB has several applications due to its robustness respiration and heart rates in a non-invasive manner and
in harsh environments, its ability to fuse accurate position- (5) vital-signs monitoring for lie-detector tests and athletic
location with low-data rate communication and its covert- performance monitoring [5].
ness for tactical applications. IR-UWB has strong material The problem of detection of respiration and the estima-
penetration capabilities (specifically in the lower bands tion of respiration rate has been studied in several contexts
approved by the FCC for radar applications) as well as before. Non-invasive sensing of respiratory and circulatory
robustness to multipath fading [1]. Multipath resolution movements with microwave Doppler radars was developed
down to a fraction of a nanosecond in differential path delay in the '70s and the '80s [3]. Signal processing algorithms
provides excellent spatial resolution for short range radar- for these radars were looked at in [4]. A Radar Vital Signs
applications in addition to an elimination of significant mul- Monitor (RVSM) was developed by researchers at Georgia
tipath fading. Additionally, UWB provides other potential Tech for use at the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta for the

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evaluation of athletic performance [5]. Signal processing the sampling frequency in fast-time is R= 1 40 GHz.
algorithms for the estimation of respiration rate and the Since the upper limit for the respiration rate is about 2
separation of heart and respiration signals was investigated Hz, we see that F, is greater than the worst-case Nyquist
in [6]. sampling rate.
The main advantage of UWB signals over the microwave The samples of the received waveforms are stored in a
Doppler radars used in the above references is good mate- matrix R to which signal-processing algorithms are applied.
rial penetration, thereby providing better coverage and the The number of times the subject breathes in the duration
ability to perform through wall measurement or monitoring. of measurement is recorded and then compared with the
The large bandwidth of UWB signals and the extremely low estimate of the respiration rate generated by the signal-
power-spectral density may produce lower electro-magnetic processing algorithms. The respiration rate that is directly
interference (EMI) as well as lower Specific Absorption measured is labeled "measured" and is considered the true
Rates (SAR) and the adverse effects of microwave radiation respiration rate.
on the human body may be alleviated. Most recently, [7]
shows some results on the use of UWB signals to detect the
respiration rate of individuals. However, no detailed analysis Subject
was presented regarding the signal processing algorithms
used for this application. Our goal is to present a con-
solidated analysis of easily implemented signal processing
algorithms with results that demonstrate the capabilities of
using UWB signals for the detection of respiration rates.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II discusses
the details of the measurement setup. In Section III, we set
up the mathematical framework for the signal processing
algorithms used in the rest of the paper with a complete
description of the algorithms used and an analysis of
their performance. Results from real-time measurements are
presented and the accuracy of the presented techniques are
demonstrated in Section IV. Our conclusions are presented
in Section V.
A. Measurement Setup
The basic measurement setup is shown in Figure 1. The
transmit and receive antennas used are TEM horn antennas
directed toward the subject, who can be located behind
an obstruction such as a wall. The transmit antenna is Fig. 1. Measurement Setup
connected to a pulser with a Pulse-Repetition Frequency
(PRF) of 100 kHz which generates pulses with a width of III. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION OF THE
300 picoseconds. The pulser also triggers an oscilloscope PROBLEM
(Tektronix TDS694C real-time scope) that is connected to
the receive antenna. The oscilloscope averages Na = 100 In this section, we present a framework for the estimation
received multipath profiles to improve the signal-to-noise- of respiration rate given a set of received waveforms or
ratio (SNR) and stores the averaged waveforms. The time- multipath profiles. For the sake of brevity, the analysis
resolution 5T for measuring the received waveforms is 25 is presented for the continuous-time case and analogous
picoseconds where each recorded profile is 50 ns long. This results can be derived for the case where the corresponding
implies that each waveform comprises N8 TW 2000 sampled waveforms are available.
sample points. The time-axis along each received waveform As shown in Figure 1, let us assume that the transmitter
is termed "fast-time". The interval between successive (av- and receiver are respectively located at coordinate vectors
eraged) received waveforms is T? = 0.1 seconds. The mea- xt and xr. Further, we assume that the nominal location of
surement interval Tmeas is typically about 70 seconds, and the air-skin interface of the chest cavity of the subject is x1.
the number of waveforms recorded was N, T-,--, = 700. Therefore, the multipath component arriving at the receiver
The time-axis along the measurement interval is termed after reflection at the chest cavity of the subject travels a
"slow-time" (while slow-time (t) is on the order of seconds, nominal distance
and deals with the rate of collection of waveforms, fast-
time (T) is of the order of picoseconds and deals with the do = lxl-tll + llx,- xll
delays within each received signal). The implies that the However, due to respiration, the chest cavity expands and
sampling frequency in slow-time is F, = 10= 1OHz and contracts periodically (in most cases), and the distance

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traveled by the corresponding multipath component d, (t) Channel Impulse Response

also varies periodically about the nominal distance: ? v? 46

TI fvT9
T9

1111 fv T9 9
d, (t) = do + g(t) (1) .........

Assuming that the change in lung volume and the displace-

ment of the chest cavity is a sinusoidal function of time, and
the distance traveled by the corresponding multipath com-
ponent also varies periodically about the nominal distance _

with a period dependent on the respiration rate fb:

..........................................................

d, (t) = do + g(t) = do + Ad sin 2wfbt

(2) ..

where Ad represents the maximum deviation in the dis- ........ ...I............................................................................................................... ,

tance traveled by the relevant multipath component. With Fast Time (r)

the assumption that the environment (besides the subject) Slow Time (t)
Vanation in the channel impulse
is static, this movement is manifested in a time-varying response due to chest cavity motion
channel impulse response h(t, r):
h(t, T) = E ai'(T T-Ti) + ab6(T Tb(t)) (3)
, _ _ ,
- - - - --respiratory variations Fig. 2. Variation of the Channel impulse response with time
static channel
as shown in Figure 2, where t and T denote the fast and slow
times respectively. Note that the direct coupling between the
antennas was observed to the strongest and earliest-arriving respiration. If we assume that the propagation environment
multipath component. In the above equationTb (t), termed is static, and the only motion present is that of the sub-
the "breathing signal" is given by ject's chest cavity, then the background clutter consists
of multipath corresponding to stationary scatterers in the
Tb (t)=
d (t)
U
do + Ad sin
U
2w.fbt
To + Td sin 2wfbt multipath environment. Since we would like to separate
moving scatterers from stationary scatterers, we need to
where c is the speed of light in air. Neglecting pulse- apply a "motion-filter" to the data, which removes the
distortion and other non-linear effects, the signal measured stationary components. The easiest way of doing this is
by the receive antenna and can be written as the convolution to simply average all the received waveforms (rows) in the
of the transmit pulse and the channel impulse response. matrix R and then subtract this average from the individual
Ignoring noise, the received signal measured at slow-time rows of the matrix. The average of all rows captures all the
t can be written as: "constant" features of the signal. Subtracting this from each
row results in a signal which contains signal components
r(t, T) p(t) * h(t, T) that vary across the set of signals, or, the variation due to
aip(T T-i) + abP(T -Tb(t)) (4) the motion of scatterers.
For the sake of clarity and notational ease, we consider
Therefore, we are measuring the received waveforms at a continuous-time motion filter. Expressions analogous to
discrete instants in slow time t = mT, (m = 1, 2, ... , Nw) those derived below can be derived for the case where
samples of the received waveforms are available.
r(mT5, T) = Z aip(T Ti) + abP(T Tb(MTs)).
i
We store Nw discrete-time sequences resulting from the A. Continuous-Time Motion filter
sampling of the received signals which can be expressed as
We first consider the output of a continuous-time motion-
r[m,nn] = Zcip(n6,T Ti) + abP(n6T-Tb(mTs)) (5) filter over a infinite measurement interval, where r(t, T)
is given for all t. The motion filter subtracts from each
These values are stored in a (Nw x N5) matrix R = waveform the average of all the waveforms along slow-
{r[rm, n]}, 1 < m < Na, 1 < n < N, A row of the matrix time t. That is, assuming a static environment, the motion
R, denoted by ri, 1 < i < Nw, represents the samples filter output in given by X (t, T) where
corresponding to the ith received waveform.
In order to extract respiration rate information from
this data, we first eliminate "background clutter", i.e., all 1 T
X (t, T) r (t, T) lim r (t, T) dt =
signal components not pertaining to the motion due to T,oc T T

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From (4), this is equivalent to The function ej sin(2wfbt) can be expanded as a series of
Bessel Functions
00
X(t, T) = abP(T Tb(t)) -lim T f abP(T -Tb(t))dt e.-J sin(2wrfbt) E jl ( )C-j2-Flfbt (10)
l=-oo
Xo (T)
Therefore,
The continuous-time Fourier Transform (CTFT) of the
output of the motion filter w.r.t. t is given by Z(f, v) ,-j2-vT>E JiQ-()) f-j2jT(f +If,)tdt
0
l=-oo
00
X(f, 7-) f x(t, T)e j2ftdt e,j2w1To E Jl(?7)6D(f + Ifb) (11)
=-00
ab f P(T Tb(t)) e j2wftdt - xo(T)Q D(f) (6) where ' = 21rvTd = 3v where 3 = 27rTd. From (9) and
y(t,T) (11),
00
where 'D (.) is the Dirac delta function. The term y(t, T) can X(f, T) + Xo(T)6D(f)
be written in terms of its Fourier transform over fast-time E0fb)QI(T)
O0b D(f +
I=-oo
Tin the (t, v) domain
where
00
Y(t, v) fY(t, ) -)~211T7
(t T)e- JWdT Ql (T) =
JI (OV)P(V)ej2-Fv(T-To)dv (12)
00

J P(T Tb(t))e j2WVTdT

It can be verified that IQl (r) is maximized at T = TO:

(Tw)e GI (hv)
Ql eJ (3v)P(v)dv
e j2vTb(t) fP(T)e j2VT dT
Finally, we have
c-j2-vTb (t) P(V) (7) 00

where P(iv) = f<p()e-j2LVT dT is the CTFT of the

X(fg i) Ceb E 6D (f + Ifb)Ql (T) -o
X(T)6D (f)
I=-oo
pulse-shape p(r). Therefore from (7), y(t, T) can be written 00

as the inverse Fourier Transform of Y(t, v)

aCb E 6D(f lfb)QI(T)
+

I00 +=-oo, o

y(t, T) P(i)ej2wFv(T-Tb (t)) dv (8) + (abQO (T) - Xo (T) ) 6D (f) ( 13 )

00

and
Using (6) and (8), we can write 00

(X(f, T) + XO(T)6D(f) jf_

X(f. TO) Cb ED,(f + lfb)GI(0)
I=-oo, 1+0o
b
+ (ab Go (/) -Xo (T)) 6D (f ) (1 4)
J P(v)ej2wv(T-Tb(t)) dv l-j2-Fftdt From the expression above, we see that the CTFT along

P(V) J
P -j2-vTb (t) C-j2-Fftdt Cj2FVTdv (9)
slow-time at Tr = comprises a train of impulses at the
o

harmonics of the respiration fb. The magnitudes of the

harmonics in IX(f, T) are determined by T, and P(v)
and the maximum value is obtained at r = Tr.
Z(f,v)
B. Finite Record Length
For the case where the breathing signal is sinusoidal, In our case, we have data r(t, T) between t t,tart and
Tb(t) = (o + Td sin 2wfbt), t = tend = tstart + Tmeas, the CTFT of the motion filter
I00 output we are interested in is equivalent to
Z(f, v) j21TvTb (t)ej-j2wFf tdt tsta rt+Tmea

Xs (f T)
. X(t, T) j-2Tftdt
-j2F1(To+Td sin 2-ffbt) tstart
L1

-j2rfftdt
rect (
Trneas
) X(r,t)e j2wftdt
e-j2wvTof -j2wvTd (2wrfbt)e -j2wftdt
sin
J00 X(f,T) * q(f) (1 5)

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where D. Effect of the Modulation index and pulse width
Defining the modulation index as
q (f) Tmease-j2wft,t--t sinc (fTmeas)
27Td, 3 = (16)
and rect (T) denotes a rectangular window of width T we can draw parallels to phase and frequency modulation
centered around the origin, and sinc(x) -sin(wxF). From (FM) concepts. FM analysis states that the bandwidth of
(9) and (15), we have the FM signal depends strongly on the modulation index
(defined as the maximum change in the carrier's phase
Xs (T, f) [abQo(T) -o (T)] q(f) + (PM) or frequency (FM) due to the modulating signal). In
+ Z00 our case, the modulation index determines the maximum
E Ql (T)(fX + / fb) delay of the pulse due to the motion of the chest cavity.
+ Ceb Carson's rule for FM and PM signals states that the (0+1)th
VI=-00,l+AO frequency harmonic is negligible compared to frequency
The spectrum of waveforms along slow time comprises components with lower indices. Therefore, if / is small, this
shifted sinc(.) functions at the harmonics of fb as shown means that we have very few strong frequency harmonics.
in Figure 3, whose magnitudes are determined by T, / and Specifically, in our case, if Td > rp (large /), where Tp
P(v). By identifying the fast-time instant To corresponding is the width of the UWB pulse, then we will observe a
to the reflection from the subject, the respiration rate can be large number of frequency harmonics, which is illustrated
estimated. A bandpass filter can be applied to the spectrum in Figure 3. On the other hand, if Td < rp (small /), i.e., the
to eliminate the harmonics and the peak values in the modulation index is small, we obtain a single strong peak at
magnitude spectrum can be used to identify the respiration the respiration rate fb, which is illustrated in Figure 3. This
rate. In order to estimate TO, we can look at the energy of can used to determine the pulse width to be used such that
X(t, T) averaged over t, and chooseT = To such that this the respiration rate identification can be done by directly
energy is maximized. This essentially picks the T that is observing the FFT without using a bandpass filter.
most likely to contain motion information. Smal 0 Large p
Analogous results can be derived for the case where
sampled waveforms are available instead of continuous
waveforms, with the Fourier Transforms replaced by the 0.
I

corresponding DFTs. In summary, from each row in the :3 0.10 rR.

.i
lI )~ ~-
.i
matrix R, we subtract the average of all the rows to filter m
E.
Ri
i
out the stationary background and take the FFT along a -2 0 2
certainT = T (determined by the average energy of the Freqiuency (Hk)
motion filter output) and find the peaks in the magnitude
of the FFT.
.200 t
C. Non-sinusoidal Breathing Signal 4.9

Feet Time F"k Tim

The breathing signal Tb (t) in the above analysis is as- 1)
f9o
sumed to be sinusoidal: Tb(t) =To +Td sin(2wFfbt). In the x10

case where the breathing signal Tb (t) is not sinusoidal but

a zero-mean periodic function with frequency fb, if we can Fig. 3. Effect of f on the spectrum
expand this function in terms of the Fourier Sine Series,
then we can write Tb(t) = Bi sin 2wifbt, then as E. Performance Evaluation
before,
In the above analysis, the effect of noise was neglected.
oo
However, assuming the presence of additive white Gaussian
e -j3Tb (t) H e-j3Bi sin(2wfbt) noise,
i=l
00 X(t, T) = abP(T Tb(t)) - abP(T- Tb(t))dt + n(t, T)
ill
rI E
00
i=l l=-oo
JI (Bi S) e-j2-Flflt E
l=-oo
K (/3)e-j2xlfbt where n(t, T) -
-00

Af(O,o07D(t)5D(T)). This expression

leads to
where K1 represents the effective coefficients of the expo-
nentials when the right-hand-side of the above equation is XI (f, T) [abQo (T) Xo(T)] p(f) + N(f, T) * O(f)
-

expanded. Proceeding as before, it is easy to see that in

this case as well, the spectrum along slow time consists of + Ceb E Ql(T)$(f+ ifb)
a series of harmonics of the respiration rate. \\=-oo,l#O

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where N(f, T) = ' n(t, T)e 2,ftdt. The effect of the A. Unobstructed view of Subject
noise is therefore the shifting of the peaks in the spectrum In this setup, the subject was sitting facing the horn
from the harmonics of fb. In order to simulate the effect of antennas at a total distance of d = dro + doR 22 feet.
noise on the proposed algorithm, ab is approximated using Waveforms were recorded at a rate of F] = 10 Hz, that is,
the bistatic radar equation for the received power Pb of the 10 waveforms per second for Tmeas = 68.75 seconds. The
multipath component energy of the motion-filter output was used to estimate the
PTGTGRaT fast-time o containing respiratory motion.
b (4 lxlx )t (4nw1
PL 4- x1 )n,, The slow-time variation of the data at Tr = o after
filtering is shown in Figure 5. We observe a periodic (nearly
where PT, GT, GR, o, A and nPL are respectively, the sinusoidal variation) due to respiration and we can easily
transmit power, transmit and receive antenna gains, the extract the respiration rate using the FFT of this slow-time
coefficient of reflectivity, the carrier wavelength and the variation, which is shown in Figure 6. Based on this figure,
path loss exponent. For this simulation, we assume that we see that the estimated breathing rate is fb =0.24034
ll -xtll = JJxr-xlll r and we obtain Hz, or 14.4205 breaths/minute. The measured breathing
PTGTGRa rate was 16.5 breaths in 68.75 seconds or fb = 165
(b 4wr) 2npL 0.24 Hz, or 14.4 breaths/minute. Note that in this case, we
obtained a single strong peak at the breathing rate fb and
In Figure 4, we look at the mean and variance of the no harmonics because of a small modulation index 3, since
respiration-rate estimation error, when fb = 0.2 Hz, versus a pulse width of 300 picoseconds is roughly equivalent to
the distance r of the subject from the transmit and receive 10 centimeters and the chest cavity typically expands about
antennas. As the distance increases, the reflected multipath 3-5 centimeters, and therefore Td < Tp.
component becomes weaker relative to the noise. The mean B. Obstructed view of Subject
and variance of the estimation error are shown for different
path loss exponents nPL* We look at the cases with large In this case, the subject was sitting behind a wooden
path loss exponents nPL = 3, 3.5, 4 in order to account wall about 2 inches thick. The distance between the subject
for the possible NLOS nature of the links between the and antennas and all other parameters remained the same
transmit antenna, the subject, and the receive antenna. We as in the first experiment. The estimated breathing rate was
observe that the proposed approach accurately estimates the fb =0.17544 Hz, or 10.5264 breaths/minute. The measured
respiration rate for one-way distances r up to 15 feet. breathing rate was 12 breaths in 68.75 seconds or fb =0.174
Hz or 10.44 breaths/minute.
102 x 10
6
- 110 E
10 - "
co
'21'
i0-2
1
10 F-1 -
e 0- 1.
wo 110-4 7
N
F o2
Mean (nPL 3) C0)
iD4
-v- Variance (nPL 3)
.%a x Mean (nPL 3.5)
o -
-E- -Variance (nPL 3.5) cn

o Mean (nPL 4)
- Variance (nPL 4)
(D
_

10 14
0 5 10 1.15 20 25 30
Distance r (feet) -8_
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Slow-Time (seconds)

Fig. 4. Evaluation of performance for different path loss exponents nPL-

Parameters used: PT = 1 mW, GT = GR = 2, 0.72, A = 40cm. Fig. 5. Slow-Time variation along range bin containing maximum
energy.

IV. RESULTS
In this section we present representative real-time mea-
surements results for two cases (1) Subject in direct view
of both antennas (2) Subject behind a wooden wall. We
demonstrate that even in the obstructed case, we obtain an
accurate estimate of the respiration rate and on occasions,
the heart-rate. The signal processing algorithms discusses
in the previous section were applied to the measured data.
Therefore, we see that in both the obstructed and un-
obstructed cases, we obtain an accurate estimate of the
respiration rate of the subject. A summary of a few other
experiments conducted is displayed in Table I. We conclude
that in nearly all cases, the estimated breathing rate is
very close to the measured breathing rate. The same signal
processing algorithms can be applied for heart-rate estima-
tion. Since the range of motion for the heart is very small

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 Frequency Content of Range Bin most likely to contain the target TABLE II
0.45 F
Measured and Estimated Heart Rates
0.4
Exp. Experiment Directly Measured Estimated
0.35 #____ Type Rate (per min.) Rate (per min.)-
a) 0.3
1 Unobstructed 80 85
2 Unobstructed 80 70
o, 0.25 3 Unobstructed 64 62
a)a

_ 0.2 4 Unobstructed 115 118

E 015

0.1

0.05 monitoring. A framework for analysis, as well as simple

0.2
0 L
0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
and accurate signal processing algorithms applicable to the
problem of the respiration-rate estimation, were presented.
0

Frequency (Hz)
It was demonstrated via real-time measurements that the
respiration-rate can be accurately estimated using these
Fig. 6. FFT of slow-time variation along the range bin containing the algorithms. Further, we have shown that the monitoring
maximum energy.
of respiration rate can be performed through walls and
TABLE I therefore can be achieved in a completely covert or non-
Measured and Estimated Breathing Rates invasive fashion. Some preliminary results on the estimation
of heart-rates using a similar approach were also presented.
Exp. Experiment Directly Measured Estimated
Type Rate (per min.) Rate (per min.) REFERENCES
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approach, with the described measurement setup. The "true"
heart rates were measured using an electronic heart-monitor.
The same algorithms were used, but as the heart-rate fh
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upper and lower limits. This also eliminates the signal from heart rate", SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. Proceedings of Spie -

components at the output of the motion filter corresponding
to respiratory motion. It was found that we can obtain
estimates of the heart-rate, as displayed in Table II. We see
that the variance of the heart-rate estimate is larger than
the respiration rate as the range of motion is much smaller.
Further measurement results are required to fully validate
the use of the proposed technique for estimation of heart
rates, especially in NLOS (low SNR) scenarios.
the International Society for Optical Engineering, vol.4368, 2001,
pp.104-12. USA.
[7] G. Ossberger, T. Buchegger, E. Schimback, A. Stelzer and R. Weigel,
"Non-invasive respiratory movement detection and monitoring of
hidden humans using ultra wideband pulse radar", 2004 Interna-
tional Workshop on Ultra Wideband Systems Joint with Conference
on Ultra Wideband Systems and Technologies, Joint UWBST and
IWUWBS 2004 (IEEE Cat. No.04EX812). IEEE. 2004, pp.395-9.
Piscataway, NJ, USA.

V. CONCLUSIONS
In this the use of impulse-based UWB signals
paper,
in non-invasive monitoring of respiration rates was ana-
lyzed. This technology has potential applications in health
monitoring, hostage rescue, triage and athletic performance

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