
Kyocera takes on laser doppler sensing with 60GHz millimetre wave
Kyocera in Japan has developed a high precision, low noise contactless sensor using 60GHz millimetre-wave sensing that it says can take on laser doppler systems in medical and industrial applications.
The sensor can detect micron-scale vibrations at a distance of up to 5m using the millimetre-wave signal, making it possible to accurately detect human heartbeat and respiratory fluctuations, as well as minute vibrations of machines and buildings, wirelessly and remotely.
The system can be applied in many routine healthcare diagnostics, efficient physical health monitoring, and for detecting anomalies in manufacturing equipment. There is a growing demand for intelligent millimeter-wave systems to perform routine inspections for building safety and to support predictive maintenance of factory equipment. Diagnosing people and collecting inspection data involve tremendous volumes of information, often obtained from minute vibrations.
Contactless sensing systems for heartbeat and respiration using lower frequency RF and ultrasonic waves have been unable to deliver highly accurate data with high time resolution that can be applied to psychoemotional monitoring and other applications.
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Kyocera’s system measures 64.5 x 63.0 x 23.82mm and enables more accurate measurement of heart rate variability because it can detect chest vibrations caused by a person’s heartbeat with high accuracy. In addition to daily healthcare measurement, this technique can also be applied to stress analysis, autonomic analysis, and other applications.
In experiments the 94g sensor measured heart rate interval (including HF band) to within +/- 10 ms, while the heart rate variability spectral error was +/- 10% or less.
The system’s high-precision vibration detection capability not only detects and extracts human heartbeat and breathing, but also motion detection from building vibrations and manufacturing equipment in factories.
Kyocera is also working on machine learning algorithms that use the millimetre-wave sensor data to analyse equipment, and plans various software modules as add-ons.
