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

随着COVID-19疾病开始在全球传播，老年人（65岁以上）遭受了大流行的更大不良影响，包括更严重的并发症、更高的死亡率和对日常生活活动（ADL）的监测中断，包括重大事件（跌倒和徘徊行为）和获得护理的机会。在家庭和护理院观察到这种中断，由于隔离和封锁，与家庭成员和护理人员的接触变得更加有限。统计数据表明，超过70%的老年人在进行ADL时经历上述各种关键事件，其后果可能导致生活质量下降和严重伤害，并对卫生和社会护理服务造成严重的财务影响。创新的技术解决方案，如使用传感装置的远程连续监测，有可能改善生活质量，并保持安全、独立、有尊严的生活，特别是在家庭或护理院隔离和封锁的情况下。传感技术包括接触式方法（加速度计、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）都在老年人ADL的监测中得到了一定程度的应用。然而，接触式系统通常价格昂贵，具有粘性电极，在长期监测期间可能引起皮肤刺激，并且接触不良可能产生嘈杂的信号。另一方面，非接触式系统可能受到被监控空间的光强、低照度条件的影响，并且在复杂的硬件安装、多样化的维护需求方面引起昂贵的管理费用，并引起隐私问题。雷达系统在遇到其范围内移动的物体时使用反射的射频信号，在低照度条件下非接触式工作，不需要记录图像/视频，不需要更改ADL，也没有因为健康问题而使人受到侮辱的因素，我们相信这更容易被用户接受。该项目的主要目的是开发和评估一个多静态（多个雷达传感器节点）雷达传感系统，以监测ADL，包括但不限于行走，坐下，站起来，吃饭，躺在床上，并同时使用机器学习算法在多个老年人中拾取物体。具体来说，目标是捕捉关键事件，如跌倒和徘徊行为。这个多学科项目将结合雷达传感技术、先进信号处理和机器学习领域的最新研究成果，以及潜在终端用户（老年人、家庭成员、住家护理人员）的参与。2019冠状病毒病背景下老年人的社会隔离和孤独：一项全球性挑战。全球卫生政策，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.