Non-Contact Vital Signs Monitoring of Dog and Cat Using a UWB Radar

Abstract

Simple Summary: In this paper, we presented a new non-contact method to measure the vital signs of at-rest pets, where the ultra-wideband radar was applied for previously unachievable sensing ability and testing convenience. The proposed scheme did not interfere with the daily rhythm of the pet being tested; most subjects would not even notice the ongoing real-time monitoring due to the larger measurement coverage of the radar sensor. Through this work, we provided an innovative tool to promote not only the measurement of pet vital signs but also the improvement of animal welfare to prevent invasive, dangerous, and unacceptable contact measurement techniques, such as anesthesia, hair removal, and surgical implants. In addition, the proposed method could realize the daily vital signs measurement and sleep monitoring of dogs and cats, which is important for the diagnosis and timely treatment of pet diseases.Abstract: As pets are considered members of the family, their health has received widespread attention. Since pets cannot talk and complain when they feel uncomfortable, monitoring vital signs becomes very helpful in disease detection, as well as observing their progression and response to treatment. In this study, we proposed an ultra-wideband radar-based, non-contact animal vital sign monitoring scheme that could monitor the breathing and heart rate of a pet in real-time. The primary advantage of the ultra-wideband radar was its ability to operate remotely without electrodes or wires and through any clothing or fur. Because of the existing noise and clutter in non-contact detection, background noise removal was applied. Furthermore, the respiration rate was directly obtained through spectrum analysis, while the heartbeat signal was extracted by the variational mode decomposition algorithm. By using electrocardiogram measurements, we verified the accuracy of the radar technology in detecting the anesthetized animals' respiratory rate and heart rate. Besides, three beagles and five cats in a non-sedated state were measured by radar and contact pressure sensors simultaneously; the experimental results showed that radar could effectively measure the respiration of cats and dogs, and the accuracy rate was over 95%. Due to its excellent performance, the proposed method has the potential to become a new choice in application scenarios, such as pet sleep monitoring and health assessment.

Motion-Tolerant Non-Contact Heart-Rate Measurements from Radar Sensor Fusion

“…τ 0 is the time-delay associated with the target distance. The time-varying delay, τ D,L (t), is defined in Equation (9). By invoking the expansion of a series of Bessel functions [38] on the last three terms in Equation (A5), s BB L (ν, f ) can be written as,…”

“…Radar-based health monitoring devices have a myriad of potential applications, such as infant monitoring [ 4 ], sleep monitoring [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], elder care [ 8 ], and animal care [ 9 ]. The non-contact feature of radar makes it extremely useful for healthcare applications, such as remote patient monitoring, and enabling a more comfortable and efficient caregiving.…”

Non-Contact Vital States Identification of Trapped Living Bodies Using Ultra-Wideband Bio-Radar

“…Bio-radar usually consists of two parts: the radar hardware and the algorithm processing system. The effectiveness of monitoring vital signs of animals using bio-radars has been demonstrated in previous researches [19]. In this study, an X4M02 (XeThru/Novelda, Oslo, Norway) UWB bio-radar system on a chip was adopted as the radar hardware to monitor the respiration as a noncontact measurement [16], [20].…”

Transforming the Adaptation Physiology of Farm Animals through Sensors

“…This contrasts with the electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures heart rate by placing electrodes on the chest of the target animal. Doppler radar-based sensing technologies include: ultra-wide band radar [ 40 ] and near-field coherent sensing. Machine-knitted washable sensor platform based on textile has been developed and validated for precise epidermal arterial pulse waves and respiratory signals simultaneously [ 41 ].…”