Adaptive Filter Processing in Microwave Remote Heart Monitors

This commmunication describes some current applications tions of adaptive filtering to the processing of microwave Doppler signals for heart rate monitoring. The problem has been approached in the past using signal processing techniques such as peak detection or autocorrelation. These methods either require large amounts of data or tend to be unreliable. This communication utilizes some recent techniques used in speech processing and applies them to heartbeat detection, thus allowing on-line processing of sampled microwave heart signals. The presentation includes a model for the signal, brief discussions of the algorithms evaluated, and qualitative analysis of performance compared to EKG measurements.