RADAR Sensing for Human Activity Monitoring of Daily Living Simultaneously in Multiple Subjects

随着新冠肺炎疾病开始在世界各地传播，老年人口(65岁以上)经历了更大的不良影响，包括更严重的并发症、更高的死亡率以及监测他们日常生活活动的中断，包括关键事件(跌倒和走失行为)和获得护理[1]。在家庭和疗养院观察到了这种干扰，由于与世隔绝和封锁，与家庭成员和照顾者的联系变得更加有限。统计数据显示，超过70%的老年人在进行ADL时经历了上述类型的危重事件，其后果可导致生活质量下降和严重受伤，并对健康和社会护理服务造成严重的经济影响。创新的技术解决方案，如使用传感设备的远程连续监测，有可能提高生活质量，并保持家庭或疗养院的安全、独立和有尊严的生活，特别是在与世隔绝和被封锁的情况下。传感技术包括接触式方法(加速计、磁力计和陀螺仪)和非接触式方法(基于声学、基于视觉的传感器和热释电红外)，都曾在某个阶段用于监测老年人的日常生活能力。然而，接触式系统通常价格昂贵，有粘性电极，在长期监测期间可能会导致皮肤刺激，并可能在接触不良的情况下产生噪声信号。另一方面，非接触式系统可能会受到监控空间中的光线强度、低照度条件的影响，并会在复杂的硬件安装、多样化的维护需求和隐私问题方面带来昂贵的管理费用。雷达系统在遇到其射程内的运动物体时使用反射的射频信号，并在低照度条件下非接触式工作，不需要记录图像/视频，不要求更改ADL，也不会因为个人的健康问题而对其进行污名处理，我们相信更有可能被用户接受。该项目的主要目标是开发和评估一种多基地(多雷达传感器节点)雷达传感系统来监测ADL，包括但不限于使用机器学习算法同时监测多名老年人的行走、坐下、站立、吃饭、躺在床上和捡起物体。这个多学科的项目将结合雷达传感技术、先进的信号处理和机器学习领域的最新研究，以及潜在最终用户(老年人、家庭成员、住宿护理人员)的参与。吴斌。新冠肺炎背景下老年人的社会孤立和孤独：一个全球性的挑战。全球卫生资源政策，2020年。

As the COVID-19 disease began to spread across the world, the elderly population (aged 65+) experienced greater adverse effects from the pandemic, including more severe complications, higher mortality and disruptions to monitoring their human activities of daily living (ADL), including critical events (falls and wandering behavior) and access to care [1]. This disruption has been observed at homes and in care homes, where contact with family members and caregivers became more limited, due to isolation and lockdown. Statistics indicate that more than 70% of the elderly experience the types of critical events mentioned earlier when performing ADL, and their consequences can lead to a decreased quality of life and serious injuries, as well as heavy financial impact on the health and social care services. Innovative technological solutions, such as remote continuous monitoring using sensing devices, have the potential to improve quality of life and preserve safe, independent living with dignity, especially under isolation and lockdown, in homes or care homes. Sensing techniques including contact approaches (accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope) and non-contact approaches (acoustic-based, vision-based sensors, and pyroelectric infrared) have all been used at some stage in the monitoring of older adults' ADL. However, contact systems are often expensive, have sticky electrodes which can cause skin irritation during long-term monitoring and can generate noisy signals with poor contact. Non-contact systems, on the other hand, can be affected by light intensity in the space being monitored, low illumination conditions and evoke costly overheads in terms of complicated hardware installation, diverse maintenance needs and raise privacy concerns. RADAR systems use the reflected RF signal when encountering a moving subject within its range and work contactlessly in low illumination conditions, requiring no recording of images/videos, demanding no alterations to ADL and there is no element of stigmatizing the person because of their health problems and we believe are more likely to be accepted by users. The primary aim of this project is to develop and evaluate a multistatic (multiple RADAR sensor nodes) RADAR sensing system to monitor the ADL including but not limited to walking, sitting down, standing up, eating, lying on bed and picking up objects in multiple older adults simultaneously using machine learning algorithms. Specifically, the aim is to capture critical events such as falls and wandering behaviour.This multidisciplinary project will combine state-of-the-art research in the field of RADAR sensing technologies, advanced signal processing and machine learning, as well as engagement from potential end-users (older adults, family members, residential care staff).Reference[1]. Wu, B. Social isolation and loneliness among older adults in the context of COVID-19: a global challenge. glob health res policy, 2020.